80,000 fans witnessed! The defending champion won 3:0 and got off to a good start The national football team is good: 2 consecutive wins to qualify
In the early morning of January 13, Beijing time, the 2023 Asian Cup officially kicked off, and the first game of the opening game, the host Qatar played against Lebanon. After 90 minutes of competition, Afif scored twice, Ali extended the advantage, and Qatar defeated Lebanon 3:0 cleanly and won the opener.
In the last Asian Cup, Qatar won all 7 games, beating Japan, South Korea won the Asian Cup, although this tournament is no longer the favorite, but as the defending champion Qatar still has a certain advantage in personnel reserves, most of the athletes in the team have participated in the World Cup with the team, and several generals such as Afif and Ali have also appeared in the squad. Despite a mediocre performance in the warm-up games leading up to the kick-off, they were placed in a good group as hosts, with the opening match at the Lusail Stadium, which is also the venue for the 2022 World Cup final, and according to Qatari media, the 82,000 tickets for the opening match were sold out.
In the latest FIFA rankings, Qatar is ranked 58th in the world, Lebanon is ranked 107th, Qatar's goal is naturally to get a good start, after the opening Qatar took the lead in creating an offensive; in the 6th minute, Ali single-handedly pushed the goal, but the referee blew offside first, and the goal was invalid; in the 13th minute, Ali's header was ferried, Abdulisagh quickly stepped forward and volleyed wide; in the 20th minute, Almahdi Ali's header in the penalty area was saved, and then Lebanon immediately counterattacked, and Matuk shot Basham to block。
In the 31st minute, Afif's header rubbed back, and a header that looked back at the moon hit the top edge of the crossbar; under Qatar's continuous offensive, the Lebanese defense, which was already backward, finally loosened; in the 45th minute, Abdulisag's header was ferried, Ali did it back in the penalty area, and Afif followed up and pushed the goal, 1:0! Qatar successfully broke the deadlock before halftime.
In the 56th minute, Qatar attacked on the left, Afif split to the left, Ward made a slight adjustment and sent a cross, Ali grabbed the nod and went to the next city, 2:0!27-year-old Ali scored 9 goals alone in the last Asian Cup, successfully won the Golden Boot, and also broke Ali Daei's goal record in a single Asian Cup, and in this tournament, he will also hit Ali Daei's Asian Cup goal record of 14 goals.
However, in the 77th minute, Ali was replaced in advance because of a thigh injury, but this did not affect the strength of Qatar, in stoppage time, Lebanon made a mistake in clearing the backfield, Afif was alert to get rid of the defense, single-handedly broke through to the penalty area and scored a brace, 3:0! The game completely lost suspense.
Looking at the statistics of the whole game, Qatar had 61% possession, 15-9 shots on goal, and 5-5 shots on goal, which can be described as a complete victory in terms of efficiency, and finally Qatar won 3:0, because this night of the Asian Cup is one game, so Qatar can sit at the top of the table if it wins. This result is also a good thing for the national football team, Qatar is the strongest team in this group, and the group stage with the national football team is in the final round, as long as the national football team can win the first 2 group games, there will be no problem in qualifying.