Qatar captain Hassan Al Haydos (right) in action during the match on Saturday.
Doha: Qatar captain Hassan Al Haydos said Saturday's match against the ‘tough Portuguese team’ was a learning experience, but rued the team's mistakes after the 3-0 loss.
Cristiano Ronaldo marked a record 181st international appearance with a goal as Portugal beat Qatar at Algarve Stadium. The Manchester United star surpassed Sergio Ramos, who has played for Spain 180 times, as the most-capped international for a European nation.
Ronaldo opened the scoring in the 37th minute with Jose Fonte adding a second three minutes into the second half. RB Leipzig striker Andre Silva completed the scoring in the last minute of the game.
“We played against a side that consists of star players from prominent clubs, names who are active week in and week out in major international leagues around the world,” Al Haydos said after the match.
“The match was difficult against a team of high calibre. We faced great pressure from the beginning, and we could not perform at our usual level. We were not able to launch the counterattacks as we had planned,” he added.
“The experience we got will prove to be very useful in the future. Their strong tackles and the pressure we faced throughout the match was a learning experience for us," Al Haydos said.
The Al Sadd star also said that mistakes contributed towards conceding three goals in Satuday's clash.
“We made mistakes that contributed to us conceding three goals. We hope to benefit from this experience because such big matches are what will give us the experiences we are looking for to prepare for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar this year,” he said.
Defender Abdelkarim Hassan also attributed Al Annabi's loss to mistakes made during the match.
“The mistakes cost us a lot today. When elite teams like Portugal are your opponents, the fewer mistakes, the better, they exploited the mistakes we made.”
“We need to evolve as a team to reach the right shape we want to be in for such matches. In general, today’s experience remains beneficial, and we will strive for the best in the next stage, starting with the Ireland match,” Hassan said.
“We played on the counterattacks and were waiting to take advantage of the Portuguese team’s mistakes, but such teams make very few mistakes so we could not develop as many attacking openings as we had hoped,” the former Asian Player of the Year said.
Asian champions Qatar are participating as a guest team in the European Qualifying tournament which has helped the players gain international experience against some of the top teams in the world.
In their next match on Tuesday, the 2022 World cup hosts will meet Ireland in Dublin.
“We hope to do better in the Republic of Ireland match in which we will try to present a good account of ourselves and come out with a positive result,” captain Al Haydos said.
