AFC praises Gulf players

The official website of the Asian Football Confederation published a report on the fifth group in the double Asian qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup and the 2023 Asian Nations which include Qatar, Oman, India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, where the fortunes of the teams and Qatar, the host country, for the remaining matches of the group was discussed.

The site listed praises to some of the stars of Group E teams, two of them are Gulf players, Qatari Akram Afif and Omani Abdulaziz Al-Muqbali.

As it was stated in the report on Akram Afif: “The player who won the award for the best player in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup Finals is still considered one of the most prominent stars in the Qatar national team through his great role in making and scoring goals.”

The report added: “The 24-year-old midfielder Afif has experience playing in Europe, through stints with Gijon, Spain, and Eupen of Belgium. He and his fellow striker, Moez Ali, form a striking force feared by all teams.”

On the Omani striker Abdulaziz Al-Muqbali, the report indicated that he is an exceptional player in the Oman national team, especially through the great experience he has, after he participated in the Asian qualifiers in 2014 and 2018.

The 32-year-old player has scored two goals during the current qualifiers, both goals came from the game against Afghanistan. He has high physical abilities that help him in handling the risks when dealing with high balls.

The AFC had previously mentioned other players such as Kuwait national team player Shabib Al-Khaldi, who said about him: “Shabib Al-Khaldi played his first international match with the Kuwait national team when he was 21 years old against China Taipei in November 2019 in which he scored his first international goal”.

“Since that time, the player continued his brilliance and scored in friendly matches against Lebanon and Malaysia, raising his tally to three goals in seven international matches.”

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