The Maroons will look to get back on track with a win against Kyrgyzstan on Thursday after stumbling early in the last round of direct qualifiers.

Qatar’s 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign has come to a crucial turn but the team can still plot a comeback starting with a win against Kyrgyzstan, head coach Bartolome ‘Tintin’ Marquez Lopez said.

The reigning Asian champions, seeking to make it to the World Cup for the first time on merit, suffered an opening day 3-1 defeat against UAE before being held to a 2-2 draw by North Korea.

Contesting their second home game of the campaign on Thursday, Qatar will look to steady the ship with a win at the Al Thumama Stadium.

“I understand that it is an important match and there will be a lot of pressure on us,” Marquez Lopez said in a press conference on Wednesday.

“There will never be a football match where you can be calm. That is why we will have to focus on playing football rather than letting the pressure get the better of us.”

Qatar are winless in the ongoing campaign, which has invited criticism against the Spanish coach, who took charge of the side in the eve of the Asian Cup 2023.

Marquez Lopez, however, said he was confident in his ideas and the positive mentality that his team carries.

“The criticism starts when we lose just one match. A match should not change anything,” he said. “In football, a win is always credited to the players and a loss is always blamed on the coach.

“I will not change anything and I will stick to my ideas. I believe in the players to win this match.”

The 61-year-old, however, has been forced to make a heavy shuffle in his backline for the next two clashes due to injuries.

Al Sadd’s full-back duo of Pedro Miguel and Abdullah Al-Yazidi are out due to injuries alongside Al Duhail’s left-back Homam Ahmed.

Forced changes have made room for the inclusion of experienced defenders, including Al Sadd’s Boualem Khoukhi and Al Wakrah’s Almahdi Ali.

“The door is open for everyone at the national team, especially as some players are injured,” the Qatar head coach said of the inclusions.

“Whoever performs well [in the Ooredoo Stars League] will have a chance to make it to the national team, especially since it is a long campaign.”

Another change in the back will see 2018 Asian Player of the Year Abdelkarim Hassan wear the Maroon shirt for the first time since his suspension for disciplinary breaches in January 2023.

Hassan made his comeback to the Qatari football arena with a move to local side Al Wakrah early this summer, and Marquez Lopez said he was impressed by the full-back’s performance so far.

“I have been following Abdelkarim’s matches in Al Wakrah. He has been doing well and he got the call-up because he deserves it,” he added.

Eyes will also be on Edmilson Junior, who made his debut against North Korea in Laos after fulfilling his naturalisation criteria. Marquez Lopez said a “high quality” player like Edmilson will do a “great job” for the national team.

Midfielder Jassem Gaber, who was instrumental in Qatar’s triumphant Asian Cup campaign earlier this year, said the team’s focus is to get back to winning ways again.

“This is a match to correct the course,” the Al Arabi midfielder said. “It will not be easy, but the aspiration is to play as well as we did in the Asian Cup.”

“It is not impossible to qualify to the World Cup from here on.”

Meanwhile, Kyrgyzstan head coach Maksim Lisitsyn, who took charge in June, said his team will fancy their chances against a “strong Qatari team”.

“Although the preparation went as we planned it, there were some difficulties since some players joined later than we had planned,” he said.

“They have their style, we have our own. But sometimes, you have to adapt and we’ll see tomorrow and I feel good. I hope the feeling will remain the same after the game too.”