Qatar, Honduras share points; Mexico advance

Doha, Qatar: An early strike by Tameem Al Abdullah was cancelled out with a stoppage-time leveller by Halberth Elis of Honduras as the Group B opponents were forced to share points after a thrilling CONCACAF Gold Cup encounter at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, yesterday.

Qatar, appearing as a guest team at the high-profile tournament once again, took the lead as early as eighth minute, when a defensive error by Honduras allowed Mostafa Mashal to deliver a cross from the left, which was expertly headed into the net by Alabdullah.

Honduras tried to pick the lock of the Qatari defense, but it was tough sledding the rest of the first 45 minutes.

The Catrachos continued to try to open things up to start the second half and a probing long-range strike from Elis in the 49’ registered as the closest look of the night up to that point.

Another big chance for Honduras came in the 58’ after an attempted clearance from the Qatari defense, with Jerry Bengtson diving toward goal only to see his header bounce over the crossbar.

As Honduras committed more numbers forward in search of the trying goal, they also left themselves more vulnerable to a counterattack and one such instance led to a chance for Yusuf Abdurisag, but Honduras keeper Edrick Menjivar snuffed out the chance.

Another chance came on a sizzling right-footed strike from Jose Pinto in the 87’ that appeared goalward, but Qatar custodian Meshaal Barsham soared to his left to make the save.

Just when it looked like Qatar would pocket the three points, Pinto flighted in a pass that was headed down by Rubilio Castillo, meeting the arriving foot of Elis who redirected into net on the last kick of the game to make it one-all.

“It’s frustrating to see a goal in the last minute. We tried our best. We have a new squad with a new coach and we are improving,” said Barsham.

It was Elis' first-ever Gold Cup goal at a crucial moment, keeping his team in the running for a place in the knockout stage.

Qatar will next meet Mexico in their third and final match of the group stage at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on Sunday (Monday Morning in Qatar), with Mexico once again looking to finish atop their Gold Cup group for the fourth straight time.

Mexico can top their group once again against a Qatar side that sits on one point going into the group finale.

Still, Qatar can move through to the next round if they win against Mexico and either a draw in the Haiti-Honduras match or if a Honduras win against Haiti is by fewer than three goals.

“Of course Mexico is a tough team. We have seen them during their last game. They were very good. We will do our best against them,” Barsham said.

Earlier, Mexico secured their spot in the knockout stage with a game to spare, after beating Haiti 3-1 in another Group B clash.

The win, with all the goals coming in the second half, means Mexico lead the Group with six points from two games, with Haiti three points behind while Qatar and Honduras both have a point each.

Despite yesterday's loss, Haiti's Derrick Etienne said he believes there is still much more to come from Les Grenadiers in the tournament.

Etienne, a veteran of Haiti’s 2017, 2019 and 2021 Gold Cup teams (13 matches), spoke with Concacaf.com following his team’s 3-1 loss to Mexico at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

Etienne reiterated that Haiti will quickly dust themselves off and get ready for Sunday’s pivotal group stage finale versus Honduras.

“We know how good Mexico is. They showed their quality today. We just have to put it behind us and be ready for the next game. We need to win to make sure that we qualify for the next round and that's the ultimate goal,” said Etienne.

“We had an opportunity to try and top the group, but we weren't able to do that, which is unfortunate, but we still have more to look forward to, so we need to put this one away. We see the mistakes we made, look at the things that we did well and try to bring it in against Honduras,” added Etienne.