Qatar prepare for busy schedule ahead of World Cup qualifiers

By Rizwan Rehmat

DOHA: Qatar will launch this summer’s 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying preparations with an international friendly against Albania at the end of this month, coach Jose Carreno confirmed yesterday.

Carreno, who took over as coach of the Qatar side a year ago, yesterday announced a batch of 27 players for the team’s training camp in Austria from May 24-30.

“We have a busy schedule in the coming weeks. We will be trying to get ready for the next stage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup by playing as many friendlies as possible,” Carreno said yesterday.

“This is a very important phase for me and my squad. We have to sort out many things as me move ahead,” the 53-year-old Uruguayan coach said.

“For our friendlies in August, we will be looking for teams that play Asian brand of football. We look forward to the next few months,” Carreno said.

He said 23 players will travel to Austria.

“We may make changes to the squad announced. A number of decisions have to be taken after my medical teams test the fitness of the players who are about to finish what has been a long season,” he said.

Qatar open the third stage of the Asian Zone, Group A, qualifiers with a game against Iran on September 1. Other teams in the group include South Korea, Uzbekistan, Syria and China.

Carreno said his players ‘have improved over the last 12 months’.

Qatar lost just one out of eight matches in the previous World Cup qualifying campaign that saw them annihilate Bhutan 15-0 in September last year.

“The difference is obvious - I know my players better now,” Carreno said when asked to compare the players he picked for the first time last May.

“I also see there is great cohesion in the team. Also, the team has improved tactically and shows great competitiveness. And we believe that national ream will be competitive even if we win or lose, but we will fight. Of course I have seen a positive change since I started working with the team,” he said.

Carreno said the friendly against Albania will be used to plan ‘things for the future’.

“No, we are not worried about this game. We will use this time to discuss our future plans. We are not very concerned about the game. Playing disciplined football is more important. It is important to gather all players for such a game. We need to get the right momentum. We have players who have performed highly or who can play highly. Some may not be in good shape but we are looking at the future. Selecting the players is a great responsibility,” he said.

Carreno said he was not surprised to see Qatar bunched together with some of Asia’s finest teams for the next stage of World Cup qualifiers.

“Of course the draw wasn’t a surprise. We were expecting a tough draw,” Carreno said.

Carreno said he wanted the Qatar Stars League (QSL) to start in August this year so that his players could get enough time to settle down ahead of the September 1 clash against Iran. But the Uruguayan admitted it was difficult to plan the start of a league with perfection with QSL organisers having to take into consideration many things.

“All (league) schedules are positive and negative as the same time. There’s no perfect schedule, especially when you think of many things like club and national team needs,” he said.

“I thought two rounds (of Qatar Stars League) in August would have been good. We didn’t get what we were looking for. The change from playing August would have allowed a few extra games for national team. From August 1 to 31 would have been ample time for national team,” he said.

“We will play 3-4 games prior to our first qualifier. We haven’t decided whom we play yet. Against Iran is certain that national team is playing on home turf. We have to be well prepared to avoid problems,” he said.

“On August 24, we will play against Thailand in Doha. We are currently working on another side (to play) in August.”

“Mid-August we will have two games in Europe where we will follow teams with style of play of our opponents in the qualifiers. It may be around 14, 17, 18. The dates are not confirmed. We have a list of teams who are free and we will see who we can play. August is not FIFA date so it is not easy to find teams to play,” he said.

The Peninsula