Hassan Al Haydos
Doha, Qatar: Qatar’s defence of their AFC Asian Cup title may have gotten off to a strong start but captain Hassan Al Haydos doesn’t want his team to take things for granted.
Akram Afif scored a brace with Almoez Ali netting one in the win over Lebanon on Friday as Qatar took the early lead in Group A but Al Haydos said there is still much to do.
“First of all, thank God we took the three points because that was very important,” Al Haydos told the-AFC.com. “We didn’t do badly but I think we can do better in the next game.
“(It was the) opening game and pressure (on the players). I think the team has more to bring to the field. Now we close this game with the three points and we start to think about the next game.”
The mercurial leader was replaced by Mostafa Meeshal just before the hour mark but only after the home side had secured some breathing space after Ali doubled their lead.
In the 57 minutes that Al Haydos was on the pitch, he combined seamlessly with club teammate Afif with 15 passes between them at the iconic Lusail Stadium.
Despite their dominance against Lebanon, Al Haydos is well aware that Qatar cannot be lulled into complacency with matches against Tajikistan (Jan 17) and China (Jan 22) to come.
“In our mind, we want to take the first position in the group. We haven’t qualified yet, so we start to think about Tajikistan and analyse them.
“We want to take another three points, (and) then another three points.” Debutants Tajikistan opened their campaign with a goalless draw with China on Saturday.
