AFC 2019: Qatar to Face N. Korea Sunday, Eye Last-16

Al Ain, January 12 (QNA) - Qatar's football team on Sunday will face North Korea's team in the second round of Group E matches in the AFC 2019 championship in Al Ain. The Qatari team held their final exercise before the game in presence of HE Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al-Thani, President of Qatar Football Association. The team showed up great shape and exhibited strong determination to achieve their second consecutive win and increase their chances of qualifying for the next round, (the last-16). In the first round of Group e, the Qatari team beat Lebanon 2-0 and Saudi Arabia beat North Korea 4-0 to top Group E standing, ahead of Qatar, the second, with a goal difference. Lebanon are third and North Korea are forth with zero points each. Qatar coach Felix Sanchez has stressed his team will not be changing their style of play when they take on North Korea in their next Group E clash in Al Ain on Sunday despite struggling to turn their dominance into goals when they met Lebanon last Wednesday. Sanchez's side eventually secured a 2-0 win over the West Asian side with goals from Abdulaziz Hatem and Almoez Ali, but they had to wait to break down Miodrag Radulovic's well-drilled Lebanese side. The Spanish coach, though, praised his team's patient approach and has no intention of a different approach when they take on North Korea, with victory almost certain to take the Qataris into the next phase of the competition. "Each match is different and we cannot renounce the way we play," said Sanchez. "It's difficult to change now, but we need to find solutions to be more close to the opposition's goal. "But in front you always have an opponent and Lebanon showed they're a well-organized team and they were very physical. This was the first game and it's never easy to do the right thing all the time in the first game. "But the team showed they were patient enough and, hopefully, in the next game we will perform better and do something that we couldn't do in the last game." (QNA)