We benefited from tough matches, says Qatar keeper Hassan

Youssif Hassan

Keeper Youssif Hassan said Qatar had benefited immensely from playing “tough matches” during the three-game series in Europe. On Tuesday, Asian champions Qatar produced a fighting 1-1 draw against Luxembourg following two tense matches against Portugal and Serbia earlier in the week. The three matches were part of the 2022 World Cup European qualifying series. On Tuesday, Ivandro Borges Sanches (31) scored for Luxembourg while Homam Alamin equalised for Qatar (42). “Our team has benefited immensely from the experience of participating in the European qualifiers. We faced strong teams such as Serbia, Portugal and Luxembourg. Playing against was an outstanding experience,” Hassan said after the match on Tuesday. “The results are not important in such matches, and the most important thing is to gain experience from facing big teams that we shall play in the World Cup,” he added. “We could have come out better against Luxembourg, but we did not adjust to the atmosphere of the match quickly. That does not mean that we did not get a good return. We were good, especially in the second half,” he said.