The Qatari national team enters Tuesday's match with high spirits, self-confidence, and an incentive to win after impressive results in the Gold Cup. Qatar had earned a victory each over Luxembourg and Azerbaijan, besides a draw with Ireland earlier in the competition.
Qatar, who playing as a guest team in the competition, have prepared well for the next stage of the qualifiers with a camp in Austria that lasted for two weeks, plus participation in the Gold Cup, during which the Al Annabi qualified for the semi-finals before losing to the United States.
Qatar national team coach, Felix Sanchez, focused on set-pieces, corner kicks, tactical and technical aspects in the last training session.
Serbia, on the other hand, has seven points, same as Portugal, and has an effective line-up in attack, midfield and defense.
"We will play against a very strong team that has great results in the qualifiers," Sanchez said yesterday.
Qatar captain Hassan al-Haydos said that the team is ready for the matches of Serbia, Portugal and Luxembourg, adding: "We have the capabilities to compete and benefit from encounters in order to gain experience from strong European teams."
Al-Haydos said in a press statement yesterday that the national team's match with Serbia today will not be easy due to the high technical level of the Serbian team, its global ranking, "but we will try to our best in order to know the strengths and weaknesses of the team".
Teammate Almoez Ali said, "The Serbian team is very strong, and includes stars who play in the European leagues. However, we have prepared very well, especially given our performance in the Gold Cup, our abilities, and high morale."
This week, the Qatar squad is expected to be in the limelight of fans after Qatar Football Association launched a nationwide marketing campaign in Hungary ahead of the Serbia clash.
The marketing campaign has been launched on the ground and social media platforms of QFA. Qatari flags around the stadium and posters of the match at the training venues have been set up.
Match posters have also appeared at the Debrecen train station, and advertisements promoting the matches against Serbia and Portugal can also be seen at Budapest Airport.
Qatar squad: Saad al-Sheeb, Meshaal Barsham, Mahmoud Abu Nada, Youssif Hassan, Salah Zakaria, Pedro Miguil, Abdul Karim Hassan, Tariq Salman, Ahmed Suhail, Musaab Khidir, Bassam al-Rawi, Homam al-Amin, Khouki Boualem, Mohamed Waad, Assim Madabo. Karim Boudiaf, Ismail Mohamed, Abdullah al-Ahraq, Abdullah Marafiya, Abdulaziz Hatim, Jassem Jaber, Akram Afif, Hassan al-Haydos, Khaled Mohamed, Sultan al-Braik, Ali Asad, Ahmed Moein, Yusuf Abdurisag, Almoez Ali and Ahmed Alaa.