Qatar coach Belmadi searches for positives amid Asian Cup exit

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DPA ©

Qatar's head coach Djamel Belmadi

Qatar coach Djamel Belmadi has tried to pick out some
positives from a dismal Asian Cup campaign which saw his side
eliminated from Group C after only two matches following Thursday's
1-0 defeat to Iran.
"The experience is so important," Belmadi said. "Today our average
age was around 24-25 years old. Most of our players hadn't played in
a competitive tournament like this. They can learn in many ways.
"With the intensity of the game, I think the players now know any
wrong pass, wrong control can make a big difference in the game and
you could see that today. It was a normal situation and then we
conceded a goal. I hope we learn from that."
But while Qatar gave the ball away in the build-up to conceding the
winner, Iranian forward Sardar Azmoun converted his chance in
clinical style, displaying a killer instinct notably lacking
Belmadi's side.
"If you don't score goals it's always difficult to win," he said. "We
have a lot of young players. Our striker (Mohammed Muntari) is young
too, even younger than most of our national team.
"This is his first competition, maybe his third or fourth game with
us. We have always had a problem with this position (striker) in the
past.
"I think in the future, Muntari, will improve and I'm happy with his
performance. Of course we need goals, we didn't score but I have
confidence for the future."
The future for Qatar contains, eventually, a home World Cup in 2022
after the 2018 edition in Russia. And Belmadi believes some of
Qatar's current team could feature on the global stage for which the
nation has never qualified so far.
"There is a long time to go to the (2022) World Cup," he said. "But a
lot of them can be present in this (2018) World Cup, especially when
you know that we don't have really massive potential players in
Qatar.
"We have our national under-18 team who won the Asian Cup two months
ago so for sure there are some good players too. I think it will be a
mix between this team and the U18s, with many players of this actual
team."
But Qatar, anxious to achieve success as soon as possible, are known
for changing coaches frequently. Regardless of what positives Belmadi
can find, it is debatable if he will be given an opportunity to build
on them.