The fourth person in the round of 18! Qatar is about to change the coach, and the Asian Cup champion coach is out of class

The reporter reported coldly On December 11, before the Qatar Football Association announced the national team squad for the Gulf Cup, it quickly completed the change of coach. Spanish coach Max López, who took office at the end of last year, resigned due to a poor record in the round of 18, and assistant coach Luis Garcia served as interim coach to lead the team to the Gulf Cup. In fact, as early as November 19, after Qatar lost 0-5 away to the United Arab Emirates in the round of 18, there was no suspense about López's resignation. The Qatar Football Association just hopes to find a suitable successor before officially announcing López's resignation. But after three weeks, the Qatar Football Association has made no progress in selecting a coach, and the Gulf Cup is imminent, so they can only let the assistant coach temporarily put out the fire.

As the winner of the Asian Cup for two consecutive years, Qatar were originally considered the favourites to qualify for the round of 18. However, López's side won at home against two Central Asian teams, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, but were beaten by neighboring United Arab Emirates, losing 4-1 to Iran and drawing with North Korea, who finished at the bottom of the group, in Laos. In particular, the 0-5 defeat to the United Arab Emirates in the 6th round made the Qatar Football Association completely lose patience. Qatar ranks fourth in Group A with only 7 points from 6 games, and is as many as 6 points away from Uzbekistan, the second place that can directly qualify, and concedes 17 goals, even surpassing the national football team (16 goals) and ranking the most in the round of 18.

After the 5-0 defeat to the United Arab Emirates, López blamed the Asian champions' crushing defeat on individual player errors, arguing that the players did not execute the tactics set out before the match. López admits that he, as a coach, is not at his best as the team. Lopes succeeded Portugal coach Queiroz at the end of last year, and led the team to win the championship with seven wins in the Asian Cup at the beginning of the year, and then the round of 36 was also undefeated and entered the round of 18 as the group leader. But he didn't expect the Qatar team in the round of 18 to suddenly lose his form, and López also exhausted the aura brought to him by winning the Asian Cup. Luis Garcia, who briefly coached Espanyol for seven months last year and became López's assistant at the end of the year, led the team to the Gulf Cup.

The Qatar Football Federation is also continuing to search for a suitable official coach, after Qatari media were rife with rumours that the Qatar Football Federation was interested in inviting Xavi to coach. In addition, former national team coach Alexis Sanchez, who is currently coaching THAAD, and French coach Galtier Duhail are also on the list of candidates. Ten days ago, it was also rumored that Croatian coach Dalic would succeed Lopes and lead Qatar to the round of 18 and possible play-offs starting in March next year. Dalic, who has coached Riyadh Crescent in Saudi Arabia and Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates, knows a lot about Middle Eastern football. He led Croatia to a runners-up finish at the 2018 World Cup and a fourth-place finish at the 2022 World Cup. But to this day, the Qatar Football Association did not choose him, but let the national team assistant coach Luis Garcia play in the Gulf Cup first.

After Australia's Trent Alexander-Arnold, Oman's Shir Hawi and Saudi Arabia's Roberto Mancini, Lopes is the fourth coach to be sacked in the round of 18. In addition, Kyrgyzstan's Russian coach Lisitsyn is also at risk of being dismissed. After taking office in June this year, Kyrgyzstan won 1-5 in the round of 18, and only beat the bottom North Korea team 1-0 at home, and the hope of qualifying is slim. In Group B, Kuwait team with 6 games, 2 draws and 4 losses, the fate of Argentine coach Pizzi will be decided by the Gulf Cup. As hosts, if Kuwait fails to do well, Pizi will step down from his third Middle Eastern national team, following Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

It is worth mentioning that the Bahraini daily newspaper (Al-Ayyam) revealed that the Bahrain national team, which is in the same group as the national football team, has reached a contract renewal agreement with Croatian coach Taradzic for a period of two years until the end of 2027. The Bahrain Football Federation is still satisfied with Taladzic's work, and after a 2-2 draw at home to Australia in November, Taladzic also said that the Bahrain team had achieved its strategic goals. Taladzic's new goal is to achieve a good result in the Gulf Cup, which he highlighted is highly competitive, with seven of the eight teams participating in the tournament being in the round of 18. Bahrain takes the tournament very seriously, making the Gulf Cup the best warm-up match before the round of 18 in March next year.

The patience of other national football associations in the round of 18 is obviously limited, except for the top six national teams in the three groups, the remaining football associations whose goal is to qualify for at least the play-offs have completed the change of coach. Other teams, including Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who have just changed their coaches, have all fielded their strongest teams in the Gulf Cup, and it is clear that the Gulf Cup will also be used as a warm-up match for the round of 18. Perhaps after the Gulf Cup early next year, there will be a coach who will leave the class, which will also have a subtle impact on the trend of the round of 18.