Qatar draw line under disappointing World Cup show to begin new era under Carlos Queiroz

Carlos Queiroz has drawn a line under Qatar’s 2022 World Cup campaign, saying the team have entered a “new era” with the goal to make the country proud at next year’s Asian Cup.

Qatar, the defending champions, will host the continent’s showpiece for the third time and first since 2011, when it stages the 24-team tournament from January 12 to February 10. The competition was initially scheduled for China this summer.

Qatar, who secured the trophy for the first time four years ago in Abu Dhabi, are undergoing a period of significant transition, with Queiroz appointed in February as successor to long-term manager Felix Sanchez.

Sanchez, who had been involved with the national set-up since 2013, departed in December after the World Cup in Qatar, in which the home side lost all three matches to exit at the group stage. The Middle East’s first World Cup hosts, Qatar were also making their first appearance at a global finals.

“We are in one special moment because looking back a little bit, we’ve just finished the World Cup, and it was a little below the high expectations,” Queiroz, who managed Iran at the November-December finals, told The National.

“So we have now one mission, which is to get back to normality and put things in the right way and make our team, our players and our fans understand that now we go for one competition level that is our world. We cannot challenge international football if we’re not the best in Asia.

“So this is exactly what I want: to create this concept of the players and all the team to understand that in football there is one journey. And the journey starts when you start to play against yourself.

“And step by step, when we start to become more solid, we can extend our ideas. That’s my technical