Qatar’s hopes of progressing past the group stage of the Asian Cup suffered a big blow when they were outclassed 4-1 by the UAE in Canberra on Sunday.
It was the worst possible start imaginable for the Al Annabi who qualified for the quadrennial event convincingly and had won the Gulf Cup in November last year.  But the hype the team carried was busted when the UAE bounced back from a goal down to post an emphatic win.
Qatar now have a mountain to climb – the heavy defeat leaving them with the dreaded prospect of an early flight home if they don’t win their remaining two matches in group C, against tough Iran and Bahrain.
What would rankle Qatar most would be the fact that they had actually taken the lead through Khalfan Ibrahim in the 22nd minute before a string of errors by the defence helped the UAE stage a fantastic rally.
The outcome left Qatar coach Djamel Belmadi so frustrated that he said he could take “no positives” from the match.
“There were no positives to take from this game. They were better than us, showed more quality and more creativity,” said the Algerian.
“If we analyse goal by goal there were a lot of individual mistakes for their equaliser and in the second half it was two free-kicks for them that made the difference. After that it was really difficult to come back in the game against good opponents like the Emirates.”
It is generally accepted that Gulf teams are of a similar standard – with the exception of Saudi Arabia who boast an enviable record in tournaments played outside the Gulf region. They have qualified for the FIFA World Cup finals four times and have held their own in continental tournaments, winning the Asian Cup three times and finishing runners-up on an equal number of occasions.
Qatar, however, had beaten Saudi Arabia in the final of the Gulf Cup, a result that had generated considerable hope among the country’s football fans. But with Iran standing in Qatar’s way, Belmadi knows the enormity of the task on hand.
“I said on Saturday that our group is very strong and tough and all the teams are good. Now we have to face Iran who were in the last FIFA World Cup and are a strong team so it’s another big game. We are already under pressure because we lost against the UAE,” said Belmadi.
Of course, sport is unpredictable and Qatar can still make a fight out of it. But for that they will have to raise their game a few notches against Iran on Thursday.