Qatar won 3 convincing points
At the 2019 Asian Cup, Qatar unexpectedly won the championship even though it was not the top candidate. At the 2024 Asian Cup, as the host, Qatar is expected by their fans to retain the championship title.
In the opening match at Lusail Stadium, Qatar was rated much higher than Lebanon. In fact, with a squad of good professional quality and home field advantage, Qatar dominated the match and actively controlled the match.
Qatar is completely overwhelming compared to Lebanon. Photo: SP
Right in the 5th minute, Qatar’s Almoez Ali scored a shot into Lebanon’s net. However, the referee later did not recognize the goal because he judged that another player on the Qatar side was in an offside position.
The pressure Qatar exerts on Lebanon’s goal is always high. At one point, Qatar’s players controlled the ball nearly 70% of the match time and continuously had very diverse attacks from many directions.
After missed opportunities, Qatar finally found the opening goal. In the 44th minute, Akram Afif took the opportunity from a messy situation to finish quickly, beating Lebanon’s goalkeeper Matar.
Leading 1-0 after the first half helped the Qatar players’ morale rise even higher. Meanwhile, Lebanon could not pull the team down too low to defend and trying to push forward to find an equalizer caused them to be punished.
In the 56th minute, Qatar doubled the gap and this time Almoez Ali had his first goal at the 2024 Asian Cup. The best player and top scorer of the 2019 Asian Cup received a pass from Afif and successfully finished, increasing the score. The score went up 2-0 for Qatar.
The victory helps Qatar get off to a good start at the 2024 Asian Cup. Photo: SP
Minutes later, Qatar proactively reduced the pace to protect the result. The most notable highlight during this period was that Almoez Ali had to limp off the field due to injury. Lebanon played hard but their limited expertise prevented them from scoring a goal.
At minute 90+6, Afif completed his personal double, helping Qatar widen the gap even further. The opening match of the 2024 Asian Cup ended with a 3-0 victory in favor of Qatar. In Group A, Qatar got the first 3 points and they quickly took advantage in the race for tickets to the 1/8 round.
