Qatari forward and captain Hasan Al Haydos (right) vies for the ball against Palestine’s Shadi Shaban during their friendly football match played at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha yesterday.
DOHA: Captain Hasan Al Haydos yesterday celebrated his 100th match milestone with a plucky goal as Qatar crushed Palestine 3-0 in their international friendly match at the Khalifa International Stadium.
Goals by Almoez Ali (3), Akram Afif (20) and one from Haydos (30) helped the hosts race away to an easy win.
The 2022 World Cup hosts, who are preparing for the Asian Cup to be held in January 2019 in the UAE, picked their second successive win within a span of four days.
On Friday, coach Felix Sanchez’s boys registered a 1-0 win over Marcello Lippi’s Chinese side in a match played at the same venue.
Yesterday, the hosts meant business right from the kick off and seemed to have started from where they left off against China.
They hardly took time to settle down and were able to get into the groove right away. Ali got his name on the scorers’ list when he out jumped the rival Palestinian defender to head home a cross from the right flank, which gave the rival keeper no chance in the third minute.
Palestine did not recover from the early jolt and were guilty of several miss passes and thus could not cobble together any significant onslaughts on the Qatar defense.
Qatar on the other hand, impressed with their with short and swift passes which caught the Palestinian players on the wrong foot.
Al Anabi increased the lead in the 20th minute through Afif. The Al Sadd striker, after been put in the clear by Abdelaziz Hatem, sprinted down the middle with a defender in hot chase, he beat the advancing keeper with a rasping shot which broke through the Palestine keeper’s defense.
Ten minutes later, captain Al Haydos, who was playing his 100 match for the country and whose feat was duly acknowledged at the start of the match by Qatar Football Association President Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, got his name on the scorers list.
Haydos’ right-footed angular drive from the centre of the box ended at the bottom right corner of the net, making it 3-0.
In the second half, both the teams tried to score but without any success.
Both the teams made use of the substitutions to give test new players and rest their trusted and tired players wherever possible.
Qatar, after taking a three-goal lead brought in Hashim Ali for Haydos with four minutes to go for the first half whistle.
Karim Boudiaf, Sultan Al Brake, Ahmad Moein, Ahmed Al Aaeldin, Tarek Salman made it to the playing XI while Qatar coach Sanchez rested Assim Madibo, Afif, Boualem Khoukhi, Ali and Bassam Husham.
In the opposite camp, Sameh Maraaba replaced Shadi Sha’aban, Oday Dabbagh came in for Mahmoud Eid, Islam Batran took over from Mahmoud Wadi while Abdulhamid Abuhabib got time on the pitch with Pablo Tamburrini taken off from the firing line.
