Olympic Games qualifier: Pakistan set to face Qatar

06 Jun, 2007

All is set for the eighth clash in soccer arena between Pakistan and Qatar in the second leg of Group-A of the 29th Olympic Games qualifier (second round) being played at Al-Gharrafa's stadium on Wednesday, 6th June.
According to a spokesman of Pakistan Football Federation (PFF), it will be fourth ever clash between two U-21 teams of the two nations in Olympics. Both the teams played two-legged matches in Barcelona Olympics Qualifiers (West/Central Asia - Group A).
Qatar won the first leg at Peshawar 's Qayyum Stadium by 4-0 on 13th September 1991, followed by 2-0 win in the second leg at Doha just under a month later. The first leg of ongoing event between two nations was played at Islamabad 's Jinnah Stadium on 14th March 2007, resulting in 2-0 win for Arabian team.
Earlier, Pakistan played the Arabian country thrice in U-19 events, and once in international level. Pakistan lost that international match in 12th Asian Cup (Group-A) 0-5 on 4 April 2000 under Haroon Yousof.
Meanwhile, the spokesman said that the three U-19 encounters ended in Qatar 's favour. The match of 24th Asian U-19 Championship 1984 at Saudi Arabian city Dammam saw Qatari youngsters overcoming Pakistani Youth team 4-0.
Four years later, in the same event, the two teams met each other twice at Manama, Bahrain. Moreover, as many as, 24 teams from the continent are taking part in the second phase of qualifying rounds to be played on a home-and-away basis.

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