AFC Asian Cup: Hosts Qatar begin title defence with comfortable victory over Lebanon in front of more than 80,000

Qatar began their AFC Asian Cup title defence by beating a limited Lebanon team 3-0 in front of 82,490 largely happy souls at the mammoth Lusail Stadium. The hosts will need significant improvement to repeat their surprise 2019 success, however, and faster and more ambitious teams than the Lebanese would feast on some of the sloppiness on show here. Qatar were the superior team, nonetheless, although they were becoming increasingly frustrated by their opponents’ determined rearguard on Friday before the game’s best player, Akram Afif, broke the deadlock after 45 minutes. He added another with a storming surge and finish deep into stoppage time. Almoez Ali, nine-goal competition top scorer in United Arab Emirates five years ago, headed the second 11 minutes after half-time. Left-winger Afif began marauding early to try to disrupt Lebanon’s rigid shape, and after 31 minutes he met a Yusuf Abdurisag cross with a header that clipped the top of the bar. The game urgently needed that action, seven minutes after a Mexican wave swept the stands, a reliable gauge of the attractiveness of the onfield fare. Those supporters leaping to their feet would have been well advised to turn their eyes to Lebanon’s head coach, Miodrag Radulovic, for entertainment. The Serb, who paired his navy pinstripe suit with a white polo shirt, was a ball of nervous energy, gesturing, hollering and pleading, as he tried to micromanage his team. An enormous technical area – everything in this stadium, which hosted Argentina’s extraordinary 2022 World Cup final success against France, is big – was not large enough for Radulovic, whose white trainers routinely threatened to enter forbidden territory. He was crestfallen when Afif drew first blood. Abdurisag won the header, when Mohammed Waad hooked over a hopeful cross from the left. It was unclear whether Ali’s touch, with his back to goal, was an attempt to control, or the pass to Afif that it became. There were no arguments over Afif’s intent. The top assist provider in the 2019 tournament with 10, he strode onto the ball to caress it inside the right post. “We conceded at the worst time, and it broke our plans,” said Radulovic. Ali thought he had opened his account after six minutes, only for semi-automated offside technology, on its competition debut, to intervene after a tidy finish across goalkeeper Mostafa Matar. A healthy Lebanese contingent in the stands cheered that decision, and the roar would have been even louder had anybody in white made contact with Mohamad Haidar’s vicious inswinging 11th-minute corner. Hassan Maatouk escaped down the right on a rare Lebanon foray, the eventual shot forcing Meshaal Barsham into an unorthodox stop with the trunk of his body. Walid Shour shot wide for Lebanon after Pedro Correia was caught dozing in defence by Bassel Jradi, and Barsham comfortably held a low strike from Hussein Zein. But it never felt as if Lebanon had the pace or attacking numbers to trouble the hosts. Common sense, mercifully, prevailed at the other end when Qatar wanted a penalty after Ali Tneich blocked an Abdulaziz Hatim effort with an arm tucked tight against his body. No question, the only fireworks on the night were the ear-splitting variety let off during a colourful opening ceremony, in which Qatar captain Hassan Al-Haydos gave up the chance to take the players’ oath, to hand the opportunity to Palestine skipper Musab Battat. By the time the music and light shows were done, everyone was ready for the football, and when the pitch covers were rolled back to reveal lush green turf, only a heart of stone would not have leapt with childish excitement. Afif’s classy opener injected more of that particular quality. Equally, Ali’s goal, which essentially extinguished Lebanese hopes, was a fine header, following an even better delivery by Waad. The centre-forward, however, did not have one defender near him when he finished from six yards. Lebanon were out on their feet by the time Afif collected the ball midway inside their half, and surged into the box box to lift his crisp shot beyond Matar. We controlled the match,” Qatar head coach Marquez Lopez said. “We have to take it step by step, and cannot think too far ahead. Our fans were amazing, beautiful, and we hope it is the same for every match.” There is a 49-position gulf between these teams in the Fifa rankings, and that looked about right on this evidence. Qatar next play Tajikistan, ranked one place above Lebanon at 106, on Tuesday, and will feel they already have one foot in the last-16. Lebanon will search for only a second win in eight Asian Cup finals games when they meet China on the same day.

AFC Asian Cup: Hosts Qatar begin title defence with comfortable victory over Lebanon in front of more than 80,000

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Akram Afif hits double and Almoez Ali on target in Lusail Stadium cruise China meet Tajikistan in second Group A fixture at Abdullah Bin Khalifa on Saturday

Akram Afif hits double and Almoez Ali on target in Lusail Stadium cruise

China meet Tajikistan in second Group A fixture at Abdullah Bin Khalifa on Saturday