For four months, Qatar’s national football team has been sealed off from prying eyes in Europe in an attempt by its Spanish coach Felix Sanchez to boost its rocky hopes of reaching the second round of the 2022 World Cup.

Annabi, the only one of 32 teams to have never reached the final, is keen to avoid repeating the experience of South Africa, which was the only one to taste the bitterness of the hosts’ early exit from the first round in 2010.

To meet this challenge, the 2019 Asian champions must show a positive against Ecuador at the opening of the Al Bayt Stadium on November 20 and try to score a possible difficult score against Senegal, the African champion and then a three-time runner. – to Holland.

To catch up with its rivals, the Qatar Federation has traveled a long strategic path by participating in the 2019 America’s Cup and the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup, as well as the European World Cup qualifiers as a guest country, the results of which are not yet known. calculated.

While his results have ranged from satisfactory in the Copa América, encouraging in the Gold Cup and modest in the European qualifications, attention has been drawn to the last preparatory stages that the Catalan coach had carried out at the end of the previous season in agreement with the playing association. .

He completely “devastated” the players of the national team, using them in a long camp starting in early June last year, team spokesman Ali Al-Salat told AFP.

– isolation and sacrifice –

“The coach and the federation discussed this issue last season, and it was agreed,” he added.

Sanchez, appointed in 2017, during a lengthy camp resorted to isolating his players completely from the media and the public for four months, in what former Qatari star Mohammed Mubarak Al Mohannadi called “a great sacrifice.”

He told AFP: “The draw is not easy and preparing for the first World Cup in a lifetime requires sacrifice… keeping players away from their homes and families for a long time.”

Sánchez, who came to Doha’s Aspire Academy in 2006, divided the last summer camp into three main stations, which he began last June in the Spanish city of Marbella for a month before moving to Austria for a lengthy indoor camp that will end with two “public » social gatherings for the masses and the media in front of the media: Canada, Friday, and Chile, the 27th of this month.

– Indoor camp –

After returning to Doha, the players will be given a three-day break before participating in a short indoor camp, during which fans will be able to attend one training session on October 2 before the delegation travels back to Marbella for the final. camp before the World Cup.

Speaking about the negative impact of the absence of players from league matches, Al-Mohannadi, a member of the Qatar Federation from 2004 to 2013, noted that “playing in an official tournament is always good, but on the other hand, their presence with each other also plays a role, especially in the case of tournaments and friendly matches.

Qatar played a four-way friendly tournament in Austria during which it drew Morocco for the local team with two goals, beat Ghana for the local team 2–1 and drew with Jamaica for the local team with the same goal. losing on Tuesday to Croatia U23 by three goals.

Has Al-Annabi has also played a large number of friendlies with various European clubs, most notably his negative draw against Italian side Lazio and his victory over Spanish Third Division Cultural Deportivo Leonesa (3-0).

– reaching Korea –

While the challenge of making it through the first round seems daunting, the Qataris dream of repeating South Korea’s home run in 2002 when they reached the semi-finals in an Asian precedent.

Al-Mohannadi, 57, a former Al Khor and Al Sadd star, is hopeful that a win over Ecuador will be the key to reaching the round of 16 and that midfielder Akram Afif, a “wonderful” player, will emerge. at his level, and go to the World Cup “enjoy”, because then he will show high quality.

Apart from Afif, the 2019 Asian Player of the Year, Annabi has a group of prominent names such as Al-Moez Ali, the Asian Cup top scorer and MVP, left-back Abdelkarim Hasan (2018 Asian Player of the Year) and Joker. Khuri Bualem.

But dismissing the South Korean Samson’s “support” achievement may not be true, especially since Korea entered its World Cup armed with five previous entrants, in addition to what was described as an “absolute revolution” led by his then coach, Gus Hiddink, got the job a year and a half ago, in the year of the World Cup, setting criteria different from previous selections.

On the other hand, Sanchez’s circumstances look very different. Despite the fact that it has been 5 years since he took over his duties as first team coach, the son of Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy has amassed successive years of accomplishments since his management of Al Anabi. Al Shabaab to the AFC U19 Cup in 2014 before ending their journey in the same group by winning the AFC Asian Cup in 2014. 2019 in Abu Dhabi.