Double reigning Asian champion, Qatar will not play in the men’s football tournament of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The Qatari Espoirs fell in the quarter-finals of the U23 Asian Cup organized in Doha and its suburbs.
The draw for the men’s football tournament for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (from July 24 to August 10) was made on March 20 in Paris, without the identity of the three Asian qualifiers. The U23 Asian Cup, which serves as the Asian TQO, has been playing for 10 days in Qatar and the host country’s team just lost the first quarter-final on the program on Thursday against Japan (2-4, ap ).
The match changed during overtime for the Blue Samurai, with goals from Mao Hosoya and Kotaro Uchino. At home, the Qatari Hopes hoped to imitate their elders, winners of a second consecutive Asian Cup on February 10 against Jordan. Like all teams at the Games, Qatar could have had up to three players over the age of 23 (star striker Akram Afif would have made a huge reinforcement).
The Bleuets will wait…
South Korea-Indonesia is scheduled for the evening in Doha, Uzbekistan-Saudi Arabia and Iraq-Vietnam will play on Friday. The matches are more than decisive. The two finalists and the winner of the match for third place will qualify for Paris 2024 (in seven stadiums in France), while the 4th will face a play-off against Guinea on May 9 in Japan.
The winner of this intercontinental play-off will be the second opponent of Thierry Henry’s French team in Group A, on July 27 in Nice. The winner of the U23 Asian Cup will fall into the group of Paraguay, Mali and Israel, the unsuccessful finalist will face Spain, Egypt and the Dominican Republic and, finally, the 3rd will have the chance to challenge a Argentina perhaps led by Lionel Messi.
