Round 3 of the 2018 World Cup campaign will kick off in September and it will be time for reality to meet the huge expectations that Qatar will carry into that phase of the qualifying campaign. The Maroons breezed through Round 2, with just one loss in six games.
Qatar coach Jose Daniel Carreno has done a great job with the team but securing what would be a historic qualification would put him on an even higher pedestal. With just two spots available from each group, Qatar, grouped with teams like South Korea and Iran, will have to punch above their weight to earn qualification.
Yesterday, Carreno announced a list of 27 players who have been shortlisted for this crucial phase of qualifying campaign. The list will be trimmed after reviewing the performances of the players in the training camps and the final 23 will tune up for their campaign with a series of friendly matches.
The first of those will be played against Albania in Austria on May 29. And Carreno is confident that the ‘new and improved’ Qatar will be a threat to any opposition. “I know my players better now. I also see that there’s greater harmony and cohesion. We have improved a lot tactically. The Qatar team is a real competition for any team that we play against. I have seen a positive difference,” Carreno told media persons yesterday.
With the friendly match coming at the end of the football season, player fatigue can be a concern but Carreno feels
that this match will be more about fine-tuning the tactical aspect rather than looking for a result.
“The game against Albania is very important. We will look to use to work on our tactics. We’re not worried about losing. We know it’s the end of the season and players are exhausted. But we have to prepare. We have to spend time as a team. It’s important to gather all our players and do well as a group,” said the Uruguayan.
“With this primary list we have tried to select players who have been consistently performing at a high level. Some players may not be in their best shape right now but we have selected them considering the future,” he added.
After the Albania friendly, Qatar aim to play four friendlies in the month of August. Two of them will be in Doha and two in Europe.
As of now the only one that is confirmed is the one against Thailand on August 24, which will be the last one before Qatar head for the qualifying campaign.
“We will play two games in Europe in August. Our focus will be to play against teams whose style of play will match the teams that we will face in the qualification campaign,” said Carreno at the national team’s headquarters in Aspire Zone.
Carreno was hoping to get two rounds of the Qatar Stars League matches to be held in August, so that the players could get some match practice. That hasn’t happened but Carreno believes that they still can get enough preparation for their first match against Iran.
“Two games in August would have been important. We were not able to get that. But we have a whole month to prepare from August 1 till the end, which is enough time to prepare for the game again Iran,” said the 53-year-old.
The Qatar coach also informed that they were working closely with QSL teams to ensure that the clubs were able to release the players for national duty.
“Nobody can criticise us and say that we are not supporting the clubs. For our game against Hong Kong, we welcomed the players just 48 hours before the game. We want to keep the players as long as possible with the teams. We want to support the league without compromising the national team,” said Carreno.
“When we look at any schedule we will find many obstacles. What’s certain is that we will always have people who will disagree with it. We understand the criticism that we get. But we have to focus on the national team,” he added.