Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Sydney: Boualem Khoukhi could hardly have asked for a better first year in the colours of the Qatar national team.
Having made his debut at the West Asian Football Federation Championship at the turn of last year, few would have imagined the 24-year-old Algeria-born striker would, by the end of the year, be lauded as the man who scored the winning goal in the final of the Gulf Cup.
And yet, it was his goal in the final of the hotly contested regional tournament in Riyadh in November that saw Qatar defeat hosts Saudi Arabia to not only claim a third Gulf Cup title for the nation, but to push them into the position amongst the favourites for the AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015.
“The best thing in 2014 was winning the Gulf Cup and scoring that goal in the final,” says the softly spoken striker, who scored his side’s second in the 2-1 win at the King Fahd International Stadium.
“My club, Al Arabi, didn’t achieve anything sadly, so when I won the cup outside Doha it meant a lot to me.”
Qatar’s win was their first in any international competition away from home soil, having lifted the Gulf Cup in 1992 and 2004 and the gold medal at the Asian Games in the Qatari capital.
Success at the AFC Asian Cup, however, will mean the Qataris raising their game to another level and Khoukhi is aware of the challenges that lie ahead after his side lost their opening game 4-1 against the United Arab Emirates.
“I would like to thank my team mates because they supported me in that game,” he says of the Gulf Cup final. “Thanks to God, I scored the winning goal. My team gave me the opportunity to prove that we are a good team and I'm happy that we finally won a Gulf Cup outside Doha.
“That’s one of the biggest things I've achieved with the national team so far.
“We are champions of the Gulf Cup, but the Gulf Cup is totally different to the Asian Cup. Here, we are facing big teams, big names and big coaches from all over the continent and we’re trying to gain experience from playing in a big competition like this.
“I now it’s going to be hard for us, but as a young team we’re going to try our best and try to gain as much experience as we can from each championship.”
Thursday’s meeting with Iran at Stadium Australia will see Khoukhi go head-to-head with Al Arabi club mate Ashkan Dejagah, but while the pair are colleagues in the Qatar Stars League, the forward is focused on taking the three points that will kick start Qatar’s AFC Asian Cup campaign.
“We’re playing against Iran, not just Ashkan,” he says. “They have a great team and after our big defeat against the UAE I’m not thinking just about facing Ashkan but also how can we win against Iran.
“My team mates are focused, they are willing to do something in this game.”
Photo: AFP