Qatar defeats Yemen and reaches the 27th Gulf semi-finals despite wasted opportunities

Tariq Salman, the Qatari national team player, expressed his happiness over the win over Yemen with a goal to none and the qualification to the semi-finals of the Gulf Cup “Gulf 27”, noting that not taking advantage of the opportunities made the confrontation more difficult until its final minutes.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat after the match, Salman said: “Praise be to God in any case. The match was difficult, and we had many opportunities, but we did not take advantage of them from the beginning. If we had succeeded in settling the match early and scoring goals, that would have helped us a lot, even in terms of making changes and resting some players, but we were not successful in that, and we made the match somewhat difficult for ourselves.”

He added: “Possession was in our favor, as were the chances, but the match remained open until the last minute, and we needed to focus so that the Yemeni team did not take advantage of one of the opportunities and score a goal that would put them back in the match.”

Algerian Noureddine Ould Ali, coach of the Yemen national team, confirmed that they sought to produce a positive performance against Qatar, and they repaid their attention to what happened in their first match against the UAE by presenting a performance different from the previous one.

Ould Ali said in the press conference after their confrontation with Qatar, which they lost 0-1: “We wanted to rehabilitate the performance and result, as I said before the match. We tried during the 70 minutes to keep up with the game, but after the goal, we made mistakes. I congratulate the Qatar national team for the victory, and I wish us success in the future.”

Regarding the distinguished performance of his players during the first half, was the physical factor a reason for the decline in the level during the second half? He answered: “Today the performance was very high according to the players’ capabilities, and I believe that the team’s mental and focus declined in the second half, due to the humidity and high temperature, but it is not a major reason, and it is on us and the Qatari team. I also do not want to talk about arbitration matters, and I am happy with the team’s performance in general, and the positives during this tournament are many.”

He added: “In general, the league has been suspended in Yemen for two years. Will I compete against World Cup teams like Qatar, and players who play at higher levels and in strong leagues? But apart from these factors, I believe in the development of Yemeni football, God willing, in the future.”

The Spanish coach of the Qatari national team, Julen Lopetegui, said that he made a number of changes in the team’s roster in the confrontation that brought them together with the Yemeni national team in the “Gulf 27” tournament, due to some players suffering from stress and exhaustion.

Lopetegui added in the press conference after the match, which they won 1-0: I made some changes because some players are suffering from stress and exhaustion, and until the day of the match I did not know who I could include, because the players are going through the recovery phase, but I always try to choose the best.

He continued: In football, you have to go step by step, and there are many things that happen, but I stress that you must focus from the beginning of the match, but this matter was not present today specifically in the first half, and in the second half we improved a lot by focusing on the importance of the match and its result to decide qualification.

He added: As for the next stage and the type of the next competitor, we will wait for the results and see what team we will face, and we will work to confront all teams with the same challenge and the same club.