Host face certain elimination after dismal display

THERE is a story that encapsulated the haplessness of the England cricket team at the time. They hosted the 1999 World Cup and contrived to be knocked out of it before their official song was released.

The Qatar football team may be able to empathise. In effect, they have been eliminated from their own World Cup before 30 teams have kicked a ball.

Not mathematically and, officially anyway, their destiny may remain in the balance when they face the Netherlands in their final group game.

But the reality of being pooled with Senegal and the Dutch meant an opening date with Ecuador assumed still greater proportions.

Qatar had waited 12 years for this. They had given their players a six-month training camp to prepare, facing everyone from Linfield to Lazio, Croatia U-23s to Chile. And if they began a World Cup with optimism, perhaps it was eroded inside four minutes.

By halftime, Qatar were fortunate to only be two goals adrift. Their soporific second-half display offered no prospect of a comeback.

When Almoez Ali and Hassan Al Haydos, two of their supposed trump cards, were removed with 20 minutes remaining, it felt as though the white flag was being raised.

When manager Felix Sanchez saw Valencia score his second, with an hour to go, he looked resigned to their fate.

While it is difficult to envisage Qatar playing as badly again, it is also hard to imagine them taking any points off even a Senegal side shorn of Sadio Mane or Holland.

They were always outsiders but, it had seemed, had given themselves the kind of preparation that would have afforded them a chance whereas two of Ecuador’s starters were playing for Brighton against Aston Villa a week earlier.

Their players were plucked from 10 different leagues. The final verdict may be that Qatar had too long to prepare, that they were a superior side when they won the Asia Cup in 2019.

There are underlying mitigating factors. Much of the attention has been focused on the fact Qatar is the smallest country to host a World Cup and don’t have a footballing tradition of success.

But after the investment, the planning, the waiting, the sense of anti-climax was palpable. Their tournament seemed to end before everyone else’s had begun. – The Independent