North Korea v Qatar: Patience the key for Sanchez

Felix Sanchez remains committed to Qatar’s patient playing style despite his team failing to impress in their Asian Cup opener.

The 2022 World Cup hosts are back in action against North Korea on Sunday, having secured a laboured 2-0 win over Lebanon in their first Group E match.

Goals from Almoez Ali and Bassam Al Rawi got the job done and former Barcelona youth coach Sanchez, who has been in the post 18 months, sees no reason to change course.

“Each match is different and we cannot renounce the way we play,” he said. “It’s difficult to change now, but we need to find solutions to be more close to the opposition’s goal.

“But in front you always have an opponent and Lebanon showed they’re a well organised team and they were very physical. This was the first game and it’s never easy to do the right thing all the time in the first game.

“But the team showed they were patient enough and, hopefully, in the next game we will perform better and do something that we couldn’t do in the last game.”

الأحد ثاني مباريات منتخبنا في #كأس_آسيا2019 منتخبنا يواجه منتخب كوريا الشمالية الساعة ٢ ظهراً بتوقيت الدوحة فالنا الفوز والتأهل ان شاء الله وكلنا #لأجل_قطر #كوريا_الشمالية_قطر pic.twitter.com/y50EWfhxSd

— الإتحاد القطري لكرة القدم