The Qatari team cuts the ribbon for the Asian Cup with the ambition of preserving the title

Thirteen months after hosting the final of the World Cup Qatar 2022, Lusail Stadium will host the opening match of the Asian Cup Qatar 2023, which Qatar is hosting for the third time in its history after the 1988 and 2011 editions, with a purely Arab confrontation between Qatari team, the owner of the land, the fans, and the Lebanese team.

Qatar enters the match with the ambition of winning and to move forward in the tournament whose last title it holds (UAE 2019), and to reconcile its fans after the unsatisfactory performance and exit from the World Cup in the first round after losing the three matches, relying on its great stars with achievements, headed by Al-Moez Ali, Qatar’s historic top scorer.

Qatar enters the tournament under the technical leadership of Marquez Lopez, who succeeded Carlos Queiroz. Under his leadership, Qatar played its first official match against Cambodia in preparation for the Asian Cup, which it won 3/0, but lost a few days ago to the Jordanian team 1/2.

Today’s opening match will be the 14th confrontation between the two teams, as they met before that on 13 occasions, during which Qatar prevailed 10 times, while they tied 3 times, including one match in the Asian Cup that ended with Qatar defeating the Lebanese team 2-0.

On the other hand, the Lebanese national team, which is suffering at the technical level, as three coaches changed its training during 2023, before settling on Montenegrin Radulovic, who is leading it for the second time in a row in the continental finals, is seeking to compensate for its failure to qualify for the knockout rounds in the last edition, which was just around the corner, but it lost the opportunity by one yellow card in favor of Vietnam, and also to erase the memory of losing the opening match 23 years ago, at home to Iran 0/2.