Qatar ready for historic moment
Qatar coach Felix Sanchez said the hosts were excitedly looking forward to a "historic moment" when his team open the 2022 World Cup against Ecuador on Sunday.
The Qataris, playing in their first World Cup, take on the South Americans at Al Bayt Stadium in the tournament curtainraiser, before further Group A matches with Senegal and 2010 finalists Netherlands.
"It's a very important day for us, it's a historic moment, it's a very happy day for us, for the players and the staff," Sanchez told a pre-match press conference on Saturday.
"It's an extraordinary day... We have made a huge investment in this country.
"I hope we can enjoy football, our sport, and do our talking on the pitch. I hope all the countries in the world can come together to enjoy this."
Qatar's players have long been preparing together for the hosts' World Cup opener and their coach added that he hoped the "massive sacrifices" they had made to be tournament-ready would pay off.
Qatar paused its Stars League in September to allow the international players to train together and play several friendlies to prepare for the World Cup.
That involved the players, who all feature in Qatar's domestic league, spending several weeks away from their families and Sanchez praised their commitment to improve as a squad together ahead of Sunday's Group A game against Ecuador.
"Obviously everything we've done in the past three years is to have a very competitive team in the World Cup. Every country's situation is different and we're a small country," Sanchez told reporters.
"All our players play in the local league, so we decided one of the ways to strengthen the national team was to... make massive sacrifices and spend long periods abroad.
"This shows the commitment of our players. All the time spent abroad training and competing is for tomorrow, Nov. 20, so we can start the competition well."
Qatar skipper Hassan Al-Haydos, who has nearly 170 caps for the national team, said he was proud to lead the team that surprised the world when they won the Asian Cup in 2019.
"It's a childhood dream," he said. "We tried to qualify and we didn't succeed in the past. But if we had played in the qualifiers, I believe we would have qualified."
Even Ecuador coach Gustavo Alfaro echoed the same sentiment, saying the middle eastern country is not in the World Cup just because they are the hosts.
"Qatar have been preparing for this match for over 12 years – for five or six months they've been playing friendlies which means they're a very well-organised team tactically. Obviously they have no players in the major European leagues but in my career I've always thought a very well-organised and physically prepared team are ready to make things difficult for any opponent. It's no small thing they've been Asian champions. They're not just here because they're the host country," Alfaro said.
Ecuador's 20-year-old midfielder Moises Caicedo, meanwhile, remained confident to show the world their mettle.
"We don't feel pressure. We are a very young team. We are here because we worked very hard," said Caicedo.
"We know tomorrow will be very important for both teams but we will focus on ourselves, we'll be concentrated. There'll be a few nerves as for many of us it's the first World Cup but we'll be calm and we're waiting to bring our A game. All the eyes of the world will be on us and we can show on the pitch who we are," he added.