AFC Asian Cup: Lebanon aiming to deliver ‘happiness among hardship’, national team face Qatar in opener
- Lebanon are targeting the victory that would deliver a shard of happiness back home when they start the Asian Cup finals against Qatar
- Hosts’ coach shrugs off pressure, but experienced captain hopes ‘current generation can deal with it’
Lebanese football poster boy Hassan Maatouk said his team would “not spare one drop of sweat” on their AFC Asian Cup finals mission to create “happiness among the hardship” in the Middle Eastern country.
The country’s national team open the tournament against hosts Qatar in front of a partisan 88,000-crowd at Lusail Stadium on Friday.
Lebanon has been plagued by civil unrest since a financial crash in 2019, with tensions heightened amid Israel’s war with Gaza. In 2020, an explosion in capital Beirut killed 218 people and displaced more than 300,000.
Miodrag Radulovic, Lebanon’s Montenegrin head coach who was appointed for a second spell last month, declined to discuss the ongoing turmoil.
“I am just thinking about football, and not answering this question,” he said. “We are football players, and have come here to show our potential and quality.”
Maatouk, however, the 36-year-old captain, whose 107 caps and 22 goals are national team records, said the Beirut explosion sent the nation “backwards”.