Qatar withstand El Salvador's late rally to reach Gold Cup semifinals
Qatar advanced into the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinals at the end of one of the most dramatic quarterfinals ever in the tournament's history, with El Salvador nearly rallying from a 3-0 second-half deficit in a match that ultimately ended 3-2 in Qatar's favor today.
Qatar looked to be cruising to victory with a 3-0 second-half lead at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona until El Salvador mounted a valiant comeback that fell just short.
"It's great to be in the semifinal. We have one more step to get to the final, but it's a pleasure to play in this tournament. We're putting forth a good effort in this competition. We have one more step. We wish to take the cup because it would be exhilarating for us," said Qatar's defender Homam Elamin.
With the feat, Qatar became only the second Non-North American team after South Korea in 2002 to advance into the semis of the tournament in its 58-year-old history.
"It was an intense match. There was too much pressure when they (El Salvador) scored the two goals, but we tried to be compact. We tried to close and defend well. We took the game, and we won, and now we have one more step," concluded Elamin.
Qatar could not have asked for a better start, as they grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second minute when an El Salvador giveaway led to a counterattack. The move ended with Akram Afif dishing a pass to Almoez Ali, whose finish beat El Salvador GK Mario Gonzalez for the goal.
The momentum was clearly with the reigning Asian champions, who quickly doubled the advantage to 2-0 in the eighth minute. Pedro Miguel found Abdelaziz Hatim, who made a slight move before unleashing a right-footed shot that rippled the net.
El Salvador looked to regroup and pull a goal back before halftime, but they encountered a very compact Qatar defence that kept the dangerous Salvadoran attackers at bay.
El Salvador's comeback task got a lot tougher in the 55th-minute when a handball resulted in a penalty for Qatar, and Ali smashed in the spot-kick for his second goal of the night to make it a 3-0 affair.
Following the third Qatar goal, El Salvador enjoyed their best spell of play, and it resulted in their first score of the night in the 63rd-minute, with a touch pass from Amando Moreno finding the cutting Joaquin Rivas, who finished to bring El Salvador to within 3-1.
The goal sparked El Salvador to life, and suddenly it was 3-2 in the 66th-minute when Bryan Tamacas won a ball deep in the Qatar area and fed Rivas, who stroked in a left-footed shot.
That set the stage for a dramatic finale in which El Salvador launched numbers forward in hopes of an equalizer, but their attempt to become the first team to come back from a three-goal deficit in a Gold Cup match ran out of time.
"I'm hugely proud. I think you've seen over the last three months that we've been together that we're growing. We have a lot of confidence in the team and our abilities and what we think we can do," said El Salvador captain Eriq Zavaleta.
"I think [Head Coach] Hugo [Perez] has done a great job of getting us on the same page and bringing in new players, and I think we've proved that to a lot of people throughout this tournament that we're not an easy game. It's a difficult way to end it, but we should be proud of how we showed ourselves throughout the tournament," added Zavaleta.
For Qatar, the win brings The Maroons closer to their ultimate objective of winning the Gold Cup. While it was a nervy final half-hour for the reigning Asian champions, maintaining their defensive shape helped Qatar prevent El Salvador from finding a late equalizer.
The coach Felix Sanchez team will take on the winner of tomorrow's quarterfinal encounter between the USA and Jamaica on July 30 for a place in the final.
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