Hosts Qatar name fully home-based squad for World Cup
Doha, Qatar - Qatar coach Felix
Sanchez selected a 26-man squad World Cup on Friday exclusively made up of homebased players led by attacking
trio Akram Afif, Almoez Ali and Hassan al Haydos.
The tournament hosts are playing at the World Cup for the first time and face Ecuador in the opening match on November 20. Qatar will also meet Senegal and the Netherlands in Group A.
Sanchez and his players have been staying together in nearlockdown since June while holding training camps in Spain and Austria.
It is a similar approach to that of South Korea 20 years ago
when the co-hosts made a shock run to the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup.
Sanchez, who learned his trade over 10 years with Barcelona’s youth teams, guided Qatar to a 3-1 victory over Japan in the 2019 Asian Cup final for
the country’s first major international title.
Son named in Korea squad
Son Heung-min was named in
South Korea’s squad on Saturday for the Qatar World Cup but it
remains to be seen if he will play after a serious facial injury.
South Korea’s captain and talisman suffered a fracture around his left eye during a Champions
League match for Tottenham and then had surgery last week.
“We are in contact with him and Tottenham’s medical department,” said South Korea’s Portuguese coach Paulo Bento as he named his squad.
“About the exact day he can train with the team, we don’t have that information,” he said.
“We need to wait, we need to analyse day by day his situation.”