India will take on Asian Champion Qatar today at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar after losing out to Oman in their first match of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Despite leading 1-0 at half time , the Blue Tigers lost in the last eight minutes of the game against Oman in Guwahati on September 5.
The loss against Oman will put immense pressure on Indian Football Team as they are now up against the World no. 63 Qatar, who were recently crowned as Asian Football Champions after defeating the Japan's team. They didn't lose any game throughout the tournament and only goal they conceded was up against Japan in the final only.
To make things worse, India's captain and football icon Sunil Chhetri, who scored the lone goal against Oman, will miss the group E fixture of WC 2022 Qualifiers due to fever.
Five Things you should know about Qatar Football Team :
- Qatar has never qualified for Football World Cup and will play their first ever WC in 2022 as a host nation, which will make them the only 2nd nation to play a world cup without qualifying for it. It happened in 1934 with Italy national team for the very first time.
- Almoez Ali, will the player to watch out for. The 23-year old striker was the top scorer in Asian Cup 2019, where he scored record breaking 9 goals. He was born in Sudan and moved to Qatar as a kid.
- India's record against Qatar is 0-3 i.e. the Blue Tigers has lost 3 matches out of four official matches. One match ended in draw.
- Qatar's Football Team is managed by Félix Sánchez Bas, former FC Barcelona Youth coach. In his leadership only Qatar won U-19 Asian Football Championship 2014.
- Qatar is in decent form right now, they were invited to Copa America 2019 and they locked horns with one of the finest teams in the world. They drew Paraguay with the scoreline of 2-2, lost to Colombia and Argentina by 0-1 & 0-2 respectively.
India vs Qatar match Live telecast: The match will be telecast on the Star Sports Network on channel Star Sports 3 at 10 P.M. IST
Qatar will be hosting FIFA 2022 World Cup.
32 Teams will participate.
The tournament is scheduled for late November until mid-December. It is to be played in a reduced timeframe of around 28 days, with the final being held on 18 December 2022.
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India is in group E and will play their first match against Oman on 5th September.
Qatar, Oman, Bangladesh, Afghanistan.