Focus on avoiding injuries leading to World Cup: Qatar coach Lopetegui

Doha [Qatar], May 20: With the Qatar national football team going through a rigorous training camp at home ahead of the forthcoming FIFA World Cup 2026 to be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico and which begins June 11, coach Julen Lopetegui has stressed that the aim now is that the players stay injury-free and ready for the mega event. In an exclusive interview with the Qatar News Agency (QNA), the Spaniard also expressed his pride in leading the group that will represent Qatar at the World Cup after having qualified on merit. Qatar are in Group B and will face Switzerland in San Francisco, USA, on June 13, before meeting Canada on June 18 in Vancouver, Canada, and Bosnia & Herzegovina on June 24 in Seattle, USA, in the group stage.
Excerpts from the interview
On the team's preparations
"We started preparing immediately after the end of the local season. It was a good season and the strong competition helped the national team players and certainly contributed to developing their levels. The most important thing for us is that the players get the largest possible number of minutes, because sometimes there are not many local players in one team. I hope that most teams will include the largest possible number of Qatari players, and that they will get enough playing opportunities, and that they will compete for a sufficient number of minutes."
Looking ahead
"What concerns us now is reducing injuries as much as possible, and we hope to avoid them, as there is no time to recover in the event of any injury; therefore, we feel some concern and look forward to reaching full readiness with all available players before starting the journey.
"We are currently working with a group of approximately 34 players, who are usually familiar to us, and we will select a final list of players who we believe are capable of helping us achieve our goal of competing strongly in the World Cup. We certainly need to understand which players are better than others physically, as there are players who are injured or have been out of action for many weeks; therefore, we have to take such matters into consideration in order to finalize our list."
Cancellation of 2026 Finalissima Qatar and disruption to plans due to regional crisis
"Everyone in the region has suffered during that period, and we had to cancel two very important matches that would have been a great test for us. However, we changed our approach and held a 10-day training camp, during which we conducted high-quality training sessions that benefited us, as the players had been away from their daily training with their clubs for 15 days. In the end, we overcame the situation and are now looking ahead to the next period, which we will enter by playing three friendly matches before the World Cup: against Sudan in Doha, then Ireland in Dublin, and finally El Salvador in Los Angeles, USA."
The coach pointed out that the team has gone through many stages in the past, not all of which were ideal in terms of results during preparation, citing as an example the loss to Russia in a friendly in Doha last September, which, despite its severity, was very useful and constituted a lesson to correct mistakes before entering the World Cup qualifying playoffs against the Omani and UAE - which saw Qatar clinch the qualification ticket.
On facing Switzerland, Canada, and Bosnia & Herzegovina
"This is the reality that we have to face, and we cannot change it, so we have to accept the fact that we will play against Switzerland first, and we have to be ready to do our best against a very strong team. Switzerland are perhaps one of the most balanced teams in Europe over the last eight years. They have the same coach, and they have outstanding players who play in the best leagues in the world, such as the Champions League, the English Premier League, the Italian League, and the Spanish League; therefore, we have to be ready to face them.
"We realize that we are playing against teams of another level, and at the same time we know our real reality, and that the competitors are better than us, but this does not mean surrendering, but rather knowing what awaits us and what it requires us to be ready in order to achieve our ambition and dream of being a strong contender, and to prove our worthiness to be at the World Cup, in an opportunity that no one gave us, but rather we obtained it with our merit, which makes us believe in our abilities and aware of the strength of our competitors."
On Afif and Almoez
"I wouldn't like to talk about individual names, as it is about the team as a whole. Our strength does not lie in one name, but in our ability to do our best as a team. We are talking about strong opponents in the World Cup, so we must focus on our work as a group. Almoez Ali, unfortunately, has not played more than two matches throughout this year, and he played one match with us last October because he suffered an injury and underwent surgery after our training camp last summer, and he was absent during the pre-season period until October, then he played his first match with the national team for 45 minutes, before suffering another injury and undergoing a second surgery, and being absent again before returning recently. Therefore, I think that he played two or two and a half matches at most, which is not enough to maintain the required rhythm, and the matter here is not about being prepared or not, but rather about having the rhythm that this competition requires, and I hope that he will improve gradually. As for Akram, he is an influential player, and fortunately he is in top form and participates a lot with his team, and this is good for him and for us."
Qatar's preliminary team list: Meshaal Barsham, Mahmoud Abu Nada, Salah Zakaria, Shehab Al Laithi, Ahmed Al Janahi, Ahmed Alaaeldin, Ahmed Fathi, Tarek Salman, Akram Afif, Edmilson Junior, Ayoub Al Alawi, Sultan Al Buraik, Al Hashemi Al Hussain, Boualem Khoukhi, Pedro Miguel, Bassam Al Rawi, Jassim Jaber, Hassan Al Haydos, Almoez Ali, Nael Mason, Sebastian Soria, Rayan Al Ali, Assim Madibo, Abdulaziz Hatem, Issa Lai, Mohammed Manaei, Karim Boudiaf, Lucas Mendes, Tahseen Mohammed, Mubarak Shannan, Hammam Al Amin, Youssef Abdulrazaq, Mohammed Muntari, and Mohammed Waad.
Source: Qatar Tribune