Saudi Arabia, Qatar win tickets to World Cup 2026

In Group A of the fifth round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, Qatar and the UAE advanced to the final of the group. The host team Qatar had to win, while the UAE only needed a draw.

The two teams played quite cautiously in the first 45 minutes, with few real scoring chances created in front of either side's goal. As a result, Qatar and UAE went into the break with a 0-0 draw.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar giành vé dự World Cup 2026 - 1 — UAE plays Qatar in the final round, Group A, fifth qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup in Asia (Photo: Getty).

Just four minutes after the break, Boualem Khoukhi broke the deadlock for Qatar with a goal to help the home team take the lead.

After conceding the goal, UAE rose strongly. The visitors continuously attacked, forcing Qatar to retreat to defend. However, the home team played proactive defense, trying to maintain the system and wait for the opportunity to counterattack.

When UAE's successive attacks were ineffective, Qatar made good use of the few opportunities to decide the fate of the match. In the 74th minute, Pedro Miguel doubled the gap, at the same time almost making UAE's hope of a direct ticket disappear.

Tarek Salman's red card in the 89th minute suddenly rekindled hope for the UAE. The visitors took advantage of the extra man in the extra minutes and scored in the 90+8 minute when Sultan Adil put the ball into the Qatar net, reducing the score to 1-2.

The gap was only one goal, but Qatar successfully defended the score until the referee blew the final whistle in the 16th minute of injury time. With 3 valuable points in the final match, Qatar took the lead in Group A and won a ticket to the 2026 World Cup in a spectacular way. The defeat left UAE in second place and had to participate in the Asian play-off.