Akram Afif (foreground) eyes third spot for Qatar at AFC U23 Championship in China.
Changzhou: Qatar’s hopes of reaching the AFC U23 Championship China 2018 final were dashed after falling 4-3 on penalties to Vietnam on Tuesday, but Akram Afif and Omar Al Emadi have promised to learn from the experience.
Qatar led twice, only for Vietnam to equalise on both occasions to push the game into extra time with a 2-2 draw.
“First of all, I want to say congratulations to Vietnam,” Afif told the-AFC.com
“We were playing to be the first, unfortunately we couldn’t win this game,” said Akram, who gave Qatar their first lead when he converted a penalty in the 39th minute.
Despite the loss, the 21-year-old was optimistic of the future.
“I hope we will learn from our mistakes. We will continue to do our best in the future.
“But we will play for third now, where we will do our best. I hope we can achieve a good result.”
Al Emadi admitted they were caught off guard with the Vietnamese revival but was also quick to commend the Southeast Asian side for a well-fought match.
“I think we came in and started well, we scored a goal,” said the Qatar SC midfielder.
“After that, Vietnam played with a lot of heart and passion. They came back into the game twice, which was very surprising to us even though they’ve done this before.
“Congratulations to Vietnam, they were the better side. Hopefully we can learn from this experience and come back better.”
The young Al Annabi, who were knocked out in the semi-finals of the 2016 edition on home soil by Korea Republic, have a chance to claim revenge as the two meet in the third-place play-off tomorrow.
