Maroon blast four to qualify in football

Qatar qualified for the quarterfinals of the football competition at the 15th Asian Games Doha 2006 after they defeated United Arab Emirates 4-1 in a group A match played at Al-Sadd Stadium.

Goals from Sebastian Quintana (2), Abdulla Obaid Koni and Wesam Rizik Abdulmajid for the hosts were enough to see off their near neighbours who scored a second half consolation through Yousef Al Hammadi.

Uzbekistan defeated Jordan 3-1 to win Group A and, with Korea beating Bahrain 1-0 at Al-Rayyan Stadium, Qatar have finished today's completed groups [A, B and C] as the best runner-up and are through to the last eight.

From the remaining group games to be played on Wednesday, only one team, the runner-up from group E, has the possibility of finishing above Qatar. This means Qatar have now secured at least the position as the second-best runner-up and will join group winners Uzbekistan, Korea and Thailand in the quarterfinals.

If Qatar does finish as the best runner-up, they will have to play group-mates Uzbekistan in the quarterfinals, the team they lost to in their group encounter 1-0.

Qatar started tonight's game knowing that they needed to win by more than two goals to better Kuwait's goal-difference (+4). And it was clear that the home team were going for the win from the beginning as their triple strikeforce, Hussain Yaser Abdulrahman, Khalfan Ibrahim Al Khalfan and Quintana all started the game together up front.

Quintana, the spearhead of the three-man attack was the first to hit the target in the eighth minute when he left two defenders behind after receiving a long ball and fired a low shot that went under goalkeeper Ali Housani's body.

In the 19th minute, Qatar scored their second after a corner taken by Ali Nasser Saleh was headed home by captain Koni. The Maroon finally moved ahead of Kuwait on goals to increase their chances of grabbing one of the two best runners-up places when Quintana scored his third from the penalty spot after UAE's Abdulla Mansoor fouled Saleh.

Qatar made it 4-0 in the 62nd minute when Abdulmajid scored from a free kick after the ball deflected off UAE's Ali Al Mazam's shoulder. Although UAE pulled a goal back two minutes later through Al Hammadi's header, it was too little too late

Two-goal hero Quintana was delighted with the result after the match and said, "It is great, especially scoring the first one. It was a crucial goal because we managed to get it very early in the game and that helped us grow in confidence and deal with the nerves that we all had. We were under pressure to win the game and to win by a good margin, so I thank God I could manage to get that early goal.

"I didn't know what was happening at the other stadiums. We found out after the game and we were thrilled we were qualified - but even during the game I still thought we needed to score one more goal."

Qatar coach Dzemaludin Musovic added, "It was difficult to prepare the players for this game. I asked them to play and focus on how to win, and to convince the crowd of our ability and forget other group results. They deserved this win.

"I told my players after the last match that they played against the strongest team in this tournament. They had a lot of scoring opportunities against them, but unfortunately they couldn't score any, but today I am happy with the way they were able to score as many goals as possible."

By 15th Asian Games, Doha 2006