The national team faces familiar foes requiring a win to book tickets to North America for next year’s competition.
Qatar have won continental titles, hosted the world’s biggest showpiece, and invested heavily in building a footballing infrastructure from the ground up. Yet one target still sits untouched: reaching a World Cup on merit.
On Tuesday at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, Julen Lopetegui’s side has an opportunity to conquer that odd. They face familiar foes in the United Arab Emirates, needing a win to book the automatic ticket to the tournament in North America next year.
Speaking to the press ahead of what he described as one of the most important matches both in his personal career and the national team that he is now heading, Lopetegui called it “an opportunity to attain a big dream.”
“I’m waiting for tomorrow’s moment,” said the Spaniard roped in on May, following a string of rather average performances that put the reigning Asian champions out of contention for the two automatic qualification spots available during the last round.
The stakes for Qatar are familiar. Three decades of near-misses have left scars: in 1990, they missed out by a single point, in 1997 a final-night defeat to Saudi Arabia extinguished their hopes, and in 2002 they fell just short of a play-off.
Each failure has reinforced a reputation for stumbling at the final hurdle. The recent odds are stacked against them, too, as losses against the UAE in the previous round proved to be defining.
Lopetegui, tasked with changing the psychology of a talented but burdened squad, maintained that Al Annabi will be looking to change that.
“Tomorrow’s history has not been written yet,” Lopetegui said, adding that his brief to the players had also been similar.
“That is why we have to be able to compete well, trust in ourselves, and our strengths to be able to achieve this big dream that we have been following for a lot of time now.”
The national team’s midfielder Assim Madibo concurred that the optimistic messages have been translated to the dressing room’s mindset.
“We’ve gone through a lot together, through all the challenges and achievements,” Madibo said when asked to elaborate further by Doha News.
Several players on Tuesday, including Madibo, were members of the 2019 Asian Cup as well as the 2014 AFC U-19 Championship-winning squads. A lot of them were subsequently in the squad that defended the Asian Cup at home in early 2024.
The midfielder, now on loan to Al Wakrah, said that having that experience will help to calm the nerves during the crucial fixture, despite the recent slump.
“We already carry this mentality and approach of winning. This is a team of winners, and it is something that we live with,” he added, assuring confidence.
On the other side of the pitch, however, will be an equally confident UAE side, riding on the wave of momentum that they picked up in a spirited comeback win against Oman on Saturday. Avoid a loss against the hosts, and the Emiratis will qualify for their first World Cup in 36 years.
While the contest took a fair share of physical and mental toll, UAE head coach Cosmin Olaroui asserted that the side was prepared to give it their all.
“These kinds of games are very important in terms of mental strength and the way we approach them,” he said. “We’ll have to treat it like a final, and we hope that we can achieve this dream for the UAE.”
It was Olaroui’s four changes ahead of the second half that allowed the Emiratis to stage a stunning 2-1 comeback against ex-Qatar head coach Carlos Queiroz-led Oman.
On Tuesday, the goal will be to focus on making themselves adaptable, he added, when probed if overwhelming support that could pour for Qatar could be a difference maker. Madibo later added that the fans on Wednesday could make the difference, alluding to Qatar’s Asian Cup defence at home last year.
“We will have to be able to get past any moment, any difficulty, any pressure from the supporters or the referee,” Olaroui said. “We are focused only on the way that we play and the target that we have to qualify.”
At Lopetegui’s end, too, it seemed to be the main assurance that the controllable variables outnumber the ones that are beyond reach.
“The match is going to start nil-nil,” he stressed. “That helps because all of us are on the same frequency.”
Whether that frequency will be in tune to make the Qatari fans sing their way to the FIFA World Cup 2026 will prove to be the real test on Monday.
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