Portuguese media highlighted the valuable victory achieved by the national football team over its Qatari counterpart 3-1 at the beginning of the final qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, which will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, and indicated that Portuguese coach Paulo Bento succeeded in defeating the Asian champion using the “Remontada” weapon.
The Whites found themselves behind by a goal in the 38th minute of the match, but eventually turned the tables to win 3-1, their first in direct international confrontations between the two sides since 2015, when they won 4-1 in the Asian Cup-Australia finals, but they failed to defeat Al Annabi in four consecutive matches.
The Portuguese newspaper “A Bola” titled its report on the match that coach Paulo Bento had defeated a giant in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers with the UAE national team that he coaches, and that the match had witnessed the progress of the host Qatari team, but Bento had other plans for the match, and did not want to leave Ahmed bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan with a defeat.
The newspaper praised the winning result of the match, which ended with three goals to one, and also mentioned that the “Whites” are currently at the top of the group, ahead of both Uzbekistan and Iran by goal difference, and that according to the qualifying system, the first two teams qualify directly for the finals.
For its part, the Portuguese newspaper Record said that the UAE team entered the final qualifiers for the World Cup with the right foot, referring to the victory it achieved outside its home stadium against Qatar, and indicated that Paulo Bento’s team achieved a “remontada”, by turning its loss from 0-1 in the first half into a 3-1 victory in the second half, which enabled it to leave with the full three points.
The Portuguese newspaper “Masía Football” also praised the comeback achieved by the national team under Pinto’s leadership, and indicated in its report that the “Whites” seemed as if they were on their way to losing to Qatar, which took the lead in the first half, but its players returned in the second half and scored three goals, thus occupying the top of the group.
In contrast, the Portuguese newspaper Zero Zero indicated that the 68th minute was the turning point for the UAE team in the match, when Hareb Abdullah scored the equaliser, and after that, goals followed that led the team to victory, and pointed out that the “Whites” have a match next Tuesday against their Iranian counterpart.
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