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The Peninsula
Doha: Forty-eight days from today, Qatar will celebrate its biggest sporting experience with the start of the FIFA World Cup 2022 – the first edition of the tournament to be hosted in the Middle East and the Arab world.
The historic day will also mark Al Annabi's debut in the biggest sporting event on earth when they will take on Ecuador in the opening match at the Al Bayt Stadium.
Qatar head coach Felix Sanchez is confident that his reigning Asian champions will be in the best shape ahead of the big kick off and give their best to put up a strong show in front of home fans.
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“It will be a big day for the country and I hope people will enjoy this event in Qatar,” Sanchez said on the sidelines of Qatar's open training session at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, which saw huge number of fans turning out to watch Al Annabi, yesterday.
“I am very happy with the support the team is getting here. The fans cheers will also help Qatar during the World Cup as it will push the players to give their best,” he added.
Qatar emerged in front of home fans after months of isolation as the team was busy with overseas training camps in Spain and Austria since June to prepare for the World Cup. Sanchez expressed his satisfaction on team's preparation for the big challenge.
“It's very nice to be back at home. Yeah, it's been a long time, but I think that's what we [had) plan and that's what was best for us to do to be able to train in good weather conditions. We are quite confident that it was a good preparation. We were preparing every day, trying to bring constant improvement. Hopefully, we're going to be at our best level for 20 November,” said Sanchez.
Before returning home, Qatar played two international friendlies in Vienna last week, losing 0-2 to Canada before showing an improved performance to play a 2-2 draw against Chile.
“Obviously it [the friendlies] was a test for us. I think we showed some improvements in the second game. When you play such competitive games, if you don't start at your best level or you concede something to the opposition, you pay a hard bill for that. So we need to learn from that,” said the Spaniard.
After a brief training camp at home that concludes on Wednesday, Qatar will leave for Spain for their final preparatory camp for the World Cup, with Sanchez looking to bring improvement.
“We will try to improve in things that are not working. We need to consistently analyse our game to see what we can do to improve as it's going to be our last touch before the World Cup,” said Sanchez, who named a 27-player squad for the camp on Saturday.
After meeting Ecuador on November 20, Qatar will meet Senegal on November 25 before facing the Netherlands in their final Group A match on November 29.
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