Asian Cup 2023: Akram Afif inspires Qatar to a triumphant opening – but the road ahead requires more
Lusail: In what felt like a continuation of the 2019 edition, Akram Afif and Almoez Ali starred at the Lusail Stadium as the hosts thrashed Lebanon 3-0 to open with a win.
Coming from a rather turbulent recent set of events: World Cup dismay just a year earlier, a mixed stint under Carlos Queiroz, and “Tintin” Marquez Lopez’s last-minute appointment, Qatar will take this improved performance with open hands – hoping things will pick up as they go through, just as it happened in 2019.
The road is not easy, however, just as it was not five years earlier in 2019. Inspired individual performances helped the Maroons get through on more than one occasion, and there were nights, like the semis against the hosts UAE and the final against Japan, where the collective was good enough to end up as the deserving victors.
Against Lebanon, however, the first half was a mix of both sides putting up a rather bleak performance, catering to the consensus of why the title defense will be far from easy on the home soil. Qatar, on the back of a rather superior pack of individual performers, started on the front foot, in the backdrop of a surprising starting line-up, which featured neither one of Boualem Khouki and Tarek Salman – the duo that started the finale in UAE – with Bassam Al Rawi and Homam Ahmed the other notable exclusions.
It took just six minutes to get a glimpse of what Qatar would be doing going into the night as Almoez Ali opened his body to shoot the ball in the back of the net, just to be denied for offside. That was a hint of Lebanon’s defensive frailties. Despite the approach to remain compact, through balls and balls over the top were going to haunt them or at the very least, would force their errors. That played in the hands of the Maroons, who struggled to get things out of their midfield all night, bettered only by second-half inclusions as well as a relatively free role Mohammed Waad was offered.
Akram Afif’s goal in the first half’s dying minutes came from a similar sequence, serviced by Ali. Lebanon’s coach Miodrag Radulović later claimed Yusuf Abdurisag had committed a foul in the build-up to the goal, yet admitted they had lost to a more experienced side and an inspired attacking duo. Radulović hailed Afif as one of the best players in Asia, designating him capable of representing a European side.
The 27-year-old Al Sadd winger later acknowledged his interest in playing in Europe but said he puts “helping his country” forward in the pecking order. “I want to play in Europe tomorrow if possible. It’s not about Akram. I can’t go out of the country and go sit on the bench,” he said.
Afif’s goal in the dying minutes of the game rounded off a 3-0 win, sandwiching a thumping Ali header off Mohammed Waad’s cross in the 56th minute, which was emblematic of his prowess and the clutch moments that he has continued to produce for the Annabi. Driving the ball from deep, the Qatari number 11 dribbled past three to put it out of Mehdi Khalil’s reach to bring out his trademark celebration.
The win has certainly buried the ghosts of the 2022 World Cup, a campaign not so good for Afif himself.
“We’ve forgotten about the World Cup, as well as the 2019 victory,” he said after bagging the Man of the Match award. “We want to do well in this one.”
The hosts will face Tajikistan in their next game on Wednesday. While the hosts are poised to top the group with China as the other team, it is now starker that the title defense will take more than just individual flashes of brilliance and certainly another courageous campaign of holding onto crucial moments.
