Qatar face Australia, eye third win on trot
Hosts Qatar, who have already confirmed their place in the quarter-finals, will be looking for their third successive win as they take on Australia in the final Group A match of the AFC U-23 Asian Cup.
With wins over Indonesia and Jordan, Ilidio Vale’s men have been in fine form. Against Australia, they will be without Saifeldeen Hassan, who is suspended after picking up a second yellow card in two games against Jordan, and the Portuguese coach is not expecting to make major alterations to his team despite confirming their progress to the next phase.
“As I have said before, I take each match one at a time,” he said. “I don’t think I will change the formation and system because we would like to secure nine points and first place, therefore all the players will want to (do their best) as well.”
Meanwhile, Australia coach Tony Vidmar is confident his squad can still perform to their potential as the Olyroos go into their clash with Qatar knowing even victory might not be enough to keep their title hopes alive.
A 1-0 loss to Indonesia on Thursday left the Australians with one point from two games and, with his team yet to score, Vidmar’s side are bottom of the standings going into the final round of group matches.
That means Australia need to pick up all three points against Qatar while hoping Shin Tae-yong’s Indonesia side draw with third-placed Jordan in their meeting today to have a realistic chance of advancing to the quarter-finals.
“We have to rely on other results,” said Vidmar. “We still have to win the last game against Qatar but we need the other result to fall in our favour. We’ve got full belief in the squad that whichever team we put out there we can play to what we are capable of, which has happened in the two games. We just need to take our chances. That’s modern day football, that’s international football.”
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