Qatar coach Felix Sanchez celebrates after yesterday's win.
Phoenix: Coach Felix Sanchez yesterday praised the fighting performance of his side, saying Qatar deserved to reach the semi-finals of the 2021 Gold Cup.
Qatar beat El Salvador 3-2 in a gripping match. It is Qatar’s maiden appearance at the highly popular tournament.
“First of all, I congratulate the players on this achievement for reaching the semifinals of the Gold Cup in which they are participating for the first time,” Sanchez said at the post-match press conference.
“This is a competition that is never easy for any team. With a fighting performance like this, that’s why we deserve to be in the semi-finals,” Sanchez said.
Qatar could not have asked for a better start, as they grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second minute when an El Salvador giveaway led to a counterattack, ending with Akram Afif dishing a pass to Almoez Ali, whose finish beat El Salvador GK Mario Gonzalez for the goal.
“We played a good match in which we dominated for 60 minutes where we were the best in all parts of the pitch and scored three goals – including two goals in the first 10 minutes or so.
“After that, El Salvador led attacks on our goal in an intense manner in which they managed to score two goals. They were able to form battling resistance, and this made the match difficult for us,"Sanchez said.
Following the third Qatar goal, El Salvador enjoyed their best spell of play and it resulted in their first score of the night in the 63’, with a touch pass from Amando Moreno finding the cutting Joaquin Rivas, who finished to bring El Salvador to within 3-1.
The goal sparked El Salvador to life and suddenly it was 3-2 in the 66’ when Bryan Tamacas won a ball deep in the Qatar area and fed Rivas, who stroked in a left-footed shot.
That set the stage for a dramatic finale in which El Salvador launched numbers forward in hopes of an equalizer, but their attempt to become the first team to come back from a three-goal deficit in a Gold Cup match ran out of time.
“The team played a good match, and the players showed an outstanding performance where we scored three goals. Our opponents tried to return to the match by scoring two goals, and they had a desire to modify the result, but we were able to secure the qualifying ticket in our favour with a daring show,” Sanchez said.
“We will learn what happened after our progress at this event. We will improve our performance by focusing on some points,” he said.
