Qatar: Prince Cup 2023.. The second-division teams make the event, and the defending champions reach the quarter-finals with difficulty

The contract for the teams qualified for the quarter-final round of the fifty-first edition of the Amir Cup Football Championship 2023 was completed with the arrival of: Al-Duhail, Al-Sadd, Al-Arabi, Al-Sailiya, Al-Gharafa, Umm Salal, Al-Shahaniya and Muaither. Al-Duhail, the holder of the title and crowned the cup on four occasions, suffered in front of his counterpart Al-Kharaitiyat, but he succeeded in overcoming it with a clean goal, scored by Ismail Muhammad, and Al-Kharaitiyat, under the leadership of his Syrian coach Yasser Al-Sibai, showed a good level against the leaders of the Qatari league standings despite the great absence he suffered. He managed to hold on throughout the two halves, almost surprisingly, and forced coach Hernán Crespo’s team to reach penalty kicks, but luck did not help him. For his part, Al-Sadd scored the most cup-winning team "18 titles", a clean quad against Al-Markhiya, so that he could reach the next round, and his four goals were scored by the Algerian Baghdad Bounedjah and Ali Asad, the Spanish Santi Cazorla, and the Moroccan international Ayoub Al-Kaabi, who scored his first official goal in his second appearance with the team. While Al-Markhiya, who is promoted to the ranks of the first-class clubs, did not show the satisfactory picture, to leave the competition early. Al-Arabi, who is the second most crowned champion with eight titles, succeeded in crossing the North hurdle with three clean goals, thanks to a brace from his Syrian striker Omar Al-Soma, and a goal from Icelandic Aaron Gunnarsson. The team, which occupies second place in the league with 31 points, performed well and succeeded in breaking the defensive cordon of the opponent, thwarting its attempts and exiting with the qualification card, while the team of coach Wissam Rizk bid farewell to the competition early. In the same context, Al-Gharafa scored the third golden record of the tournament with seven crowns, a massive victory over Qatar by four goals, to maintain its hopes of reaching the final match for the second year in a row. The four goals for the team of Portuguese coach Pedro Martinez were scored by Ahmed Alaa, Moayad Hassan, Ahmed Al Janahi and Yassin Brahimi, while Moroccan Badr Bannoun scored Qatar’s only goal from the penalty mark. Muaither blew up a big surprise after he managed to eliminate Al-Ahly, the owner of the first title of the Prince’s Cup in its first edition in 1973 among four trophies in its history, by defeating it by three goals, scored by George Kwasi, Aladdin Gray and Jamal Hamad, while Nikola Vukevich scored for Al-Ahly. Al-Ahly repeated the scenario of the previous edition by failing to pass the final price round, while Muaither, under the leadership of his Spanish coach Jose Murcia, who occupies second place in the second division league with 16 points, managed to cause a surprise and pass to the quarter-final round, to follow the example of his counterpart Al-Shahaniya, who overthrew Al-Wakrah in fourth place. in "QNB Stars League" By beating him on penalties (3 – 1) after a 1-1 draw. Al-Shahaniya, third-placed in the second division with 14 points, two points ahead of Muaither Al-Thani, succeeded in dragging the match into a penalty shootout to be able to snatch the card, and thwart the efforts of Al-Wakra, looking for its first title in the history of the competition. In turn, Al-Sailiya clinched the pass to the quarter-finals at the expense of Al-Rayyan, who won the title on six occasions, by defeating it with two goals to one. Chilean coach Nicholas Cordova’s team failed to maintain their last hope of winning a title this season by losing to Tunisian coach Sami Trabelsi’s team. Al-Rayyan had reached the quarter-finals in the previous edition before bidding farewell to the competition against Al-Wakra with a penalty shootout. Al-Sailiya, who had not won the title before, played a great match, and succeeded in forcing Al-Rayyan to lose, to succeed in reaching the quarter-finals. And Umm Salal, which currently occupies the eleventh place – penultimate in "QNB Stars League" With 10 points, it qualified for the quarter-finals at the expense of Al-Khor, the leaders of the second division standings, by defeating it with a clean goal. Despite the unconvincing performance of coach Talal Al-Karkouri’s team, he succeeded in overcoming the hurdle of Al-Khor, who wasted an irreplaceable opportunity after his player Saeed Brahimi missed the penalty kick in the final minutes, before Jordanian Yassin Al-Bakhit scored the winning goal and the only match in the second minute of stoppage time. . Al-Khor, who is at the top of the second division with 22 points and six points behind its closest pursuers, failed to pass the round of sixteen for the ninth edition in a row after it was the last time it reached the quarter-finals in the 2014 edition, and was deposited at that time by losing to Al-Sailiya in a penalty shootout. The tournament draw drew two parallel paths leading to the final match. In the first path, Umm Salal will meet in the quarter-finals with Al-Sadd, while the same path includes another confrontation in the quarter-finals, bringing together Al-Shahaniya with Al-Gharafa, provided that the two victors meet in the two quarter-final matches of the path. Same in the semi-final match. As for the second track, it will meet in the quarter-finals, Al-Sailiya with Al-Duhail, while the same track includes another confrontation in the quarter-final round, Muaither gathered with Al-Arabi, provided that the two victors meet in the quarter-final matches of the same track in the semi-final match.