There바카라s a good chance the World Cup will go from bad to worse for the Qatar team if the players don바카라t conquer their nerves when they face African champion Senegal in their second group match. (More Football News)
The Qataris are already the first hosts to lose the opening game of a World Cup after they were overwhelmed by their nation바카라s biggest sporting occasion in a 2-0 Group A defeat to Ecuador on Sunday.
That puts them in danger of also being only the second host after South Africa in 2010 to be eliminated in the group stage.
But what about losing every game? Or the dismal prospect of failing to score a goal at their home World Cup?
That would likely pile even more criticism on FIFA바카라s decision to award the World Cup to the small but very wealthy Gulf emirate that had never qualified for the game바카라s biggest tournament before winning the right to host it 12 years ago.
바카라Maybe we felt a bit overwhelmed by the responsibility. We were nervous as well,바카라 Qatar coach Felix Sanchez said. 바카라I hope we will be under less pressure (against Senegal) and we can approach the game in a more competitive way. I think that is something we can work towards.바카라
Qatar바카라s next chance to show it deserves a place on a World Cup field comes on Friday against Senegal, a team still boasting an array of players from the top leagues in England, Spain, Italy and France even if it is missing injured forward Sadio Mane.
바카라We have a lot of room for improvement,바카라 Sanchez said after his players froze in the glare of global scrutiny against Ecuador.
Qatar might be the 2019 Asian champion, but every squad member plays for a local club at home in an indicator maybe of the gap between them and the standard required at a World Cup.
Qatar바카라s struggles also stand out after other teams from Arab countries have made themselves more at home at the first World Cup in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia바카라s colossal upset defeat of Argentina was followed by impressive performances from Tunisia and Morocco in the tournament바카라s first week.
Senegal also slipped to an opening loss at the World Cup but troubled a strong Netherlands team before second-half injuries to midfielder Cheikhou Kouyate and defender Abdou Diallo interrupted the West Africans바카라 rhythm and the Dutch took advantage to score two late goals.
Kouyate is likely out of the Qatar game but Senegal coach Aliou Cisse said the focus for his team is up front, where he has high expectations for a new forward line combination of Ismaila Sarr, Boulaye Dia and Krepin Diatta.
They didn바카라t quite get it right in their first game together after Mane was ruled out, but if they do against Qatar as Cisse expects it could be another long day at the World Cup for the hosts.
