Qatar vs Honduras

The stakes are at an all-time high for Qatar and Honduras as they lock horns in a ‘must-win’ CONCACAF Gold Cup Group B encounter.

Qatar’s return to the Gold Cup as a guest nation was off to an abysmal start as lower-ranked Haiti overcame them 2-1 on Sunday, meaning they won’t be able to repeat a seven-point tally from their tournament debut two years ago. Based on their day-one showing, the ‘Maroons’ are more likely to endure another pointless tournament, as happened in their dreadful 2022 FIFA World Cup appearance last December. With four defeats from five internationals in the lead-up to this fixture (W1), Qatar’s hopes of beating Honduras, as they did in their only previous meeting at the Gold Cup (2-0), look unlikely. Furthermore, since exiting the World Cup, Carlos Querioz’s men have only won two of their eight matches (D1, L5), keeping just one clean sheet in that period.

If Qatar’s Gold Cup start was underwhelming, Honduras was nothing short of terrible as tournament favorites Mexico utterly outclassed Diego Vasquez’s side 4-0 last weekend. And if one can tell a bad day from the morning, Honduras’ nasty habit of progressing from the group stages in every other Gold Cup campaign across the last five editions is likely to continue. But if they’re to replicate the same feat from 2021 and reach the quarter-finals, ‘Los Catrachos’ must shrug off the stress and find a way to halt a three-game losing streak, during which they conceded nine goals and scored just one in return. However, if they fail to snap that run, Honduras could be facing a winless tournament exit, a feat they’ve only experienced once across the previous nine Gold Cup campaigns.