Pakistan-Qatar Clash in Football on June-6   
Pakistan Times Sports Desk

LAHORE: Pakistan will take on Qatar in the second leg of Group-A in the 29th Olympic Games football qualifier (second round) on June 6 at Qatar's Al-Gharrafa's Stadium.

It will be fourth ever football clash between the two U21 teams of the two nations in Olympics, said a spokesman of Pakistan Football Federation here on Monday.

Both teams played two-legged matches in the Barcelona Olympics qualifiers (West/Central Asia Group A). Qatar won the first leg at Peshawar's Qayyum Stadium by 4-0 on September 13, 1991, followed by a 2-0 win in the second leg at Doha just under a month later.

The first leg of the ongoing event between the two nations was played at Islamabad's Jinnah Stadium on March 14 2007, resulting in a 2-0 win for the Arabian team.

"The 25,000-seater main stadium is the one of the newest and largest in Qatar," he said.

Earlier Pakistan played the Arabian country thrice in U19 events, and once at the international level. Pakistan lost the international match in 12th Asian Cup (Group-A) 0-5 on April 4, 2000 under Haroon Yousof, while the three U19 encounters ended in Qatar's favour.

The match of 24th Asian U19 Championship 1984 at the Saudi city of Dammam saw Qatari youngsters overcoming Pakistani team 4-0. Four years later in the same event, the two teams met each other twice, at Manama and Bahrain.

The team under Tahir Mahmood failed to cope with the formidable Qatar team and lost both legs 0-3 and 0-5.

Twenty-four teams from the continent are taking part in the second phase of qualifying rounds to be played on a home- and-away basis. The teams were divided into six groups of four teams each, with group winners and runners-up booking berths in the final qualifying round of AFC.

Pakistani team is under coaching of former Pakistan Railway's winger Muhammad Rasheed who represented Pakistan in 1981 Kings Cup at Thailand in 1981.

Twenty players are currently training under him while 27 players were named by the French-born Mouly Hassan Harmatallah Sbai.●