Qatar coach Felix Sanchez mentioned on Tuesday his crew have been by no means focusing on a spot within the knockout section after defeat by the Netherlands left the hosts with no level within the World Cup.
The dwelling facet completed all-time low of Group A after a 2-0 loss on the Al Bayt Stadium, having already joined South Africa in 2010 as the one hosts to be dumped out on the first hurdle.
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“We’re a rustic with 6,000 soccer licences so this was a probable scenario,” mentioned Sanchez when requested if he ever thought Qatar would get by the group.
“We by no means thought at any time to set a goal of reaching the final 16 or the quarter-finals.
“We simply needed to return right here and see what we may do. We managed to play two good video games in opposition to Senegal and the Netherlands. The first recreation (in opposition to Ecuador) we weren’t at our ordinary stage and we all know that.
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“You can use statistics the way you need however we have to make our personal assessments.”
Qatar got here into the match as continental champions after successful the 2019 Asian Cup, however by no means critically threatened to tug off any shock outcomes.
Sanchez, who has been in cost since 2017, mentioned he would wait to resolve whether or not or to not keep on as coach.
“I’m unsure about my future to be sincere … We simply need to mirror on this. We haven’t thought something particularly abut the longer term.”
The win despatched the Dutch by as group winners, together with Senegal.
Although Qatar misplaced all three video games, Sanchez was happy with his squad’s capability to check their mettle in opposition to one of many “large favourites”.
“I believe that we’ve performed in opposition to an awesome crew, in all probability one of many large favourites to go very far on this competitors,” Sanchez mentioned.
“It was a really robust recreation for us however I imagine the crew managed to compete at a really excessive stage for a lot of minutes.”
