Pak, Qatar clash in 13th AFC U-16 Championship tomorrow

LAHORE,—The first-ever U16 clash between Pakistan and Qatar will take place in the Asian Cup in the 13th AFC U16 championship qualifiers (Group A) tomorrow in Doha.
It will be the 9th overall football contest between the two countries which had earlier players at different levels.
The eighth Pakistan-Qatar clash took place in 2007 in second leg of Group-A in the 29th Olympic Games qualifier (second round) when Qatar’s Olympic team out ran Pakistan’s Olympic team 7-0 at Al-Gharrafa stadium.It was also fourth ever clash between two U21 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 13 September 13, 1991, followed by 2-0 win in the second leg at Doha just under a month later. The two matches of Beijing Olympic Qualifiers saw Qatar winning first leg 2-0 at Islamabad ‘s Jinnah Stadium on March 14, 2007, followed by 7-0 win at Doha.
Pakistan also played the Arabian country thrice in U19 events. The match of 24th Asian U19 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 . The team under Tahir Mahmood failed to cope with the formidable Qatar team and lost both legs 0-3 and 0-5.
Both the teams also played each other once in national level. Pakistan lost that international match in 12th Asian Cup (Group-A) 0-5 on April 4, 2000 under Haroon Yousof.
Forty-five teams were drawn from the pots and put into eight sections, divided into six technical levels on ranking based from the AFC U-17 Championship 2006. The winners and runners-up of the seven groups qualify for the Finals alongwith the winner of the three-team Group H which comprises Korea Republic, Thailand and Chinese Taipei. The yet to be identified hosts also qualify automatically for the Finals in 2008. Thursday (Oct 25) Fixture : Qatar vs Pakistan (Qatar Sports Club) Yemen vs Oman (Qatar Sports Club) Syria vs Kyrgyzstan (Al Arabi Stadium).—Agencies