{"id":4014,"date":"2024-01-17T12:38:52","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T02:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theasiangame.net\/?p=4014"},"modified":"2026-09-25T14:25:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T04:55:46","slug":"qatar-still-trying-to-shake-world-cup-demons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiangame.net\/ro\/qatar-still-trying-to-shake-world-cup-demons\/","title":{"rendered":"Qatar still trying to shake World Cup demons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Qatar continue their AFC Asian Cup campaign tonight at the Al Bayt Stadium looking to make it two wins from two and secure their place in the knockout rounds.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

While the architectural wonder, with it\u2019s bedouin tent-style design, was one of the iconic stadiums of Qatar\u2019s World Cup for the host nation it\u2019s a venue that induces more pain than pleasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was at the stadium in Al Khor, about a 45 minute drive north of Doha, that Qatar\u2019s opening night humiliation against Ecuador played out. A defeat, in truth, that it feels like they are still trying to overcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A further 0-2 loss to the Netherlands in the final group stage game bookended their Al Bayt misery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they prepare to return to the stadium for the first time since the World Cup, it\u2019s a reminder that their World Cup capitulation, and the tag of \u2018chokers\u2019 is not something they\u2019ve yet been able to shake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The defending champions started their AFC Asian Cup defence in fine style at the Lusail Stadium, a stadium they never got to experience at the World Cup, with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Lebanon, showing flashes of the Qatar side that swept all before them in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it also served as a reminder of the huge opportunity they let slip just over 12 months prior. That World Cup humiliation still hangs as an albatross around their neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As the old saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression and Qatar failed miserably at theirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For as impressive as their success in the UAE was back in 2019, judgement day was always going to come in the form of a World Cup on home soil. The Asian Cup, for all its history and prestige in this part of the world, doesn\u2019t carry the same cache elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the World Cup is where the final judgement would be cast in stone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all the investment, for all the development, for all the countless hours spent in camps preparing for this moment, they simply had to deliver. Without going over old ground and reopening old wounds, deliver they most certainly did not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As large parts of the world, particularly in western Europe, bathed in the Schadenfreude, Qatar was left humiliated and broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they slowly begin to pick up the pieces, the spectre of that failure looms large over the Maroons<\/em> at this tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The departure of Carlos Queiroz on the eve of the tournament only added to the perception that this is a team and a nation still in turmoil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope was replaced with pessimism pre-tournament, according to Qatari journalist, Ahmed Hashim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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