The host Qatar national team is on the verge of being eliminated from the 2022 FIFA World Cup, on Friday, after suffering a second successive loss, this time against Senegal 1-3, in Group A competitions.
The fate of “Al-Annabi” will be decided later today when the Netherlands play with Ecuador from the same group, and therefore any draw or “orange” victory will exclude the Qataris from their first World Cup participation.
Boulay Dia (41), Famara Diedio (48) and Bamba Dieng (84) scored Senegal’s goals, while the first goal for Qatar in the history of the World Cup went to Mohamed Muntari (78).
Qatar will play in the third and final round against the Dutch national team next Tuesday.
Qatar became the fifth host country to lose two matches in a row, after Spain (1982), the United States (1994), South Korea (2002), and Brazil (2014).
Qatar’s substitute goal scorer Muntari told BN Sports, “The feelings are mixed. When you score your country’s first goal in the World Cup you are lucky, but we lost and I don’t like losing.”
Regarding the reasons for the failure of the Qatari team in the first two matches, he replied, “Lack of experience. This is the first participation, but we will keep the positives.”
As for midfielder Mohamed Waad, he apologized, “I don’t know what to say. Perhaps I and my fellow players should apologize to the fans for the rest of my life. We hope to compensate in the upcoming tournaments. I apologize from the youngest to the oldest.”
On the other hand, Senegal, which is competing in the finals without its star striker Sadio Mane, the best African player this year and the second best player in the world due to injury, revived its hopes of reaching the second round, where a match awaits it against Ecuador in the last round.
Senegal narrowly lost to the Netherlands in their opening match with two goals scored late in the match.
Qatar’s Spanish coach Felix Sanchez excluded goalkeeper Saad Al-Sheeb from the starting line-up due to his poor performance in the first match, and replaced him with Mishaal Barshim, the younger brother of Moataz, the world champion and Olympic gold medalist in the high jump.
Al-Sheib’s performance was wobbly in the opening match against Ecuador (0-2) and caused the penalty kick that came from the first goal by Ener Valencia.
Sanchez also made two additional adjustments, involving Ismail Mohamed and Asim Madibo, instead of Bassam Al-Rawi (injured in the knee) and Abdel Aziz Hatem.
The beginning of the Qatari team was somewhat cautious, for fear of receiving an early goal that would complicate matters.
Senegalese control was clear, but without danger, before the first stray Qatari shot from Al Sadd star Akram Afif (16).
Kriban Diata responded directly with a powerful ball, which was blocked by the Qatari goalkeeper and sent to a corner, then a creeping shot by Idrissa Guy, which passed to the right post of Barshim (22).
In the most serious Qatari attack, Al-Moez Ali exchanged the ball with Afif, so the latter scored the Senegalese goal, and before he paid Ismail, he walked into the area without the referee awarding a penalty kick (33).
Qatar defender Boualem Khoukhi made a mistake in distracting a cross from Diata, so Boulay Dia snatched it from him and kicked it into the net from a short distance (41).
And at the beginning of the second half, the affairs of the Qatari team got complicated when Diedio took advantage of a corner kick, so he raised his head to the ball and deposited it in the net (48).
Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy saved his goal from a sure goal when he blocked Ismail Mohamed’s header from a distance of 3 meters (67).
The Qatari team succeeded in reducing the difference through substitute Muntari, after he came on for four minutes, instead of captain Hassan Al-Haydos, with a powerful header that hit the net (78).
But the last word was for Senegal, who added through substitute Bamba Dieng III six minutes before the end of the regular time of the match, taking advantage of a cross (84).
It is noteworthy that Senegal kept its net clean once in 10 matches in the World Cup finals, and this happened when it achieved a resounding victory over France 1-0 at the opening of the 2002 World Cup, when the latter was the champion of the previous version on its soil and Senegal participated for the first time.