2023-12-06T20:15:45+00:00
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/ The Qatar Football Association announced on Wednesday that Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz was relieved of his duties without explaining the reasons, and appointed in his place the Spaniard Marques Lopez, Al Wakrah coach, to lead Al Annabi in the Asian Cup, which will be hosted by Qatar, the defending champion, in early 2024.
The federation wrote in a statement that the mission of Queiroz, who trained Arab teams including Egypt, the Emirates, and Qatar, ended “by mutual consent between the two parties,” and added in a later publication that the contract with Marquez came “after the positive results he achieved with Al-Wakrah.”
Queiroz was appointed to his position last February on a 4-year contract, with the aim of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup after Qatar’s disappointing participation in the 2022 World Cup on home soil with Spanish coach Felix Sanchez, when it suffered 3 defeats in 3 group stage matches.
During its participation in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the Qatar national team, led by Queiroz, lost to Haiti 1-2, tied with Honduras 1-1, then beat Mexico 1-0, and in the quarter-finals suffered a crushing loss to Panama 4-0.
The Portuguese coach also led the Qatar national team to two victories in the first two matches of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, over Afghanistan (8-1) and India (3-0), after losing to New Zealand 0-1 in a friendly match and drawing with Russia 1-1 last September.
In the Jordan International Championship last October, it tied 0-0 with Iraq before winning on penalties, then suffered a heavy 0-4 defeat against Iran.
In 12 matches with Qatar, Queiroz won 5 times, tied 2 matches, and lost 5 matches.