Qatar begins World Cup qualifier in Bahrain

On Friday, new Qatar coach Sebastiao Lazaroni's boys will take their first step dow the long and ardous path towards the 2014 World Cup, with an away fixture agaianst Bahrain. The match at the Bahrain's National Stadium in Riffa is scheduled to kick off at 8pm local time. Apart from Iran, ranked 53rd in the world, Qatar (88) is well ahead of Bahrain (101) and Indonesia (131) in its Asia qualification group (E). Only the winne

r and runner-up of the round robin group advance to the fourth round of the AFC qualifiers, which means that Qatar is left with little margin of error. After Friday's clash, Qatar will host Iran on September 6 in Doha. Their next qualifying game will then be in Jakarta against Indonesia on October 11. This round of Asian qualification qualification continues February next year. Qatar arrived in Bahrain on Wednesday reeling from back-to-back losses in friendly games in the past fortnight.They recorded losses against Iraq (1-0 at home) before falling to the United Arab Emirates 3-1 at Al Ain. Going into Friday’s game, coach Lazaroni seems optimistic, especially after the recovery of the injured players such as the team captain Bilal Mohammed, Majdi Siddiq and Hamid Ismael. As for Bahrain, they are coming off a 1-0 victory over Sudan in a friendly played at home last week. They had also recently beaten United Arab Emirates club side Bani Yas 3-0 after drawing 1-1 with Oman in an abandoned friendly during their July training camp in Dubai. Meanwhile, this Qatar-Bahrain match will mark the first official game for Qatar’s Brazilian tactician Sebastiao Lazaroni, who was appointed to his new post earlier this month. Same for the former England under-21 manager, now Bahrain head coach Peter John Taylor, who was signed to take over the national team duties in July. Bahrain is one of five nations (others being Japan, South Korea, Australia and North Korea) that received byes through to the third round. Friday’s clash may be the group opener but it looms as a potentially vital one. The other teams in Group E, Iran and Indonesia, are expected to finish top and bottom of the group respectively, leaving Bahrain and Qatar to fight out the second spot which yields a place in the fourth round. Qatar will be hoping to claim a much-needed victory as a boost to its credential as the host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Lazaroni brings vast international experience to the Qatar job. He was coach of his native Brazil in the successful 1989 Copa America campaign and 1990 World Cup, and had coached the Jamaican national team. The 61-year-old had managed several of the big club in Brazil, including Flamengo, Vasco de Gama, Gremio and Botafogo, plus several club sides around the world including Fiorentina and Fenerbahce. If Qatar wins in this group, it will then move on to the fourth round, which will have two groups of five teams each that will see the group winners and runners-up automatically qualifying for the 2014 World Cup.