England

Qatar are Asia’s finest again but need strong World Cup to repair reputation | John Duerden

12-Feb-2024 08:30:48 | Guardian

Rightly or wrongly, second Asian Cup win in a row will not undo damage of 2022 in the eyes of much of the global community

The 2023 Asian Cup ended as it had begun almost a month earlier: with Akram Afif scoring for Qatar. The first got the ball rolling for the hosts against Lebanon and the last came in the 95th minute of the final to make it 3-1 against Jordan. It meant the celebrations could really start among the vast majority of the 86,000 fans at Lusail Stadium.

All three of Qatar’s goals came from the penalty spot, converted by Afif, who ended the tournament as top scorer with eight. None were outrageous decisions by the Chinese referee, Ma Ning, despite the increasingly sarcastic applause by the Jordanian players. For those men in white, it was when the penalties came – especially the second – that was worse than how.