QATAR
Head Coach: Felix Sanchez
Player To Watch: Akram Afif
Qatar had a relatively strong qualifying campaign, having outclassed Turkmenistan and India before drawing with Syria to qualify as Group C winners. But the true strength of this squad lies in the fact that they’ve played together as a unit for some time now. The core of this squad also featured in the 2016 AFC U23 Championship, where they finished fourth and they’ve continued improving as a unit since then.
Ahmed Moein may be the household name but keep an eye on Afif Akram, who has improved tremendously since joining KAS Eupen on loan from Villareal, last year.
“There’s a new generation, we have a new national team. We are a mix of the Olympic team and the first team and at the Gulf Cup and in the AFC Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates, we will see what we will do there,” Akram said. “But the first thing is that we want to win the AFC U23 Championship for Qatar, and secondly to do it for us as players and for our families.
“For the players, we want to win so we can become the first team in Qatar’s history to win two titles and then we can go on and try to do something with the Qatar national team, hopefully at the AFC Asian Cup in the UAE in 2019.”
Trivia!
Captain Ahmad Moein was the Most Valuable Player of the AFC U19 Championship back in 2014.