The Palestinian football team will be playing to give some joy in times of war, Musab al-Battat, its captain, told reporters on the eve of their opening game against Iran here on Sunday.
“We as players are part of the Palestinian people and live through the same suffering as the people,” he said, “We wish this (the war) will end soon and for this to be an exceptional tournament for us so we can put a smile on the faces of the Palestinian people.”
Palestine has been embroiled in a deadly war between Israel and Hamas, which has claimed thousands of lives so far, including a large number of babies, women and journalists.
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According to Oxfam, Palestinians are being killed at an average rate of 250 people a day, which is more than the daily death toll of any other major conflict in the 21st century.
“There has been very little football activity in Palestine for three months since the start of the war and this impacted us negatively, but we played friendlies abroad and qualifiers matches. We want to put in good performances and get good results for our fans,” al-Battat said.
Qatar had previously shown solidarity with Palestine during the opening ceremony, when Hassan Al-Haydos, its captain, passed on the mic to Al-Battat to take the oath of the competition.
Palestine has been drawn in Group C along with Iran, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates, with the top two earning qualification into the knockouts.
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It has previously been to the tournament twice before, in 2015 and 2019, but is yet to win a game. But its head coach Makram Daboub said that his boys will look to spring a surprise, eyeing a spot in the knockouts this time.
“Iran is one of the best teams in the continent. They have a lot of top players and are a talented group. It’s between them, (South) Korea and Japan for the title in my opinion,” he said.
Palestine, despite having no domestic football in recent weeks, drew 0-0 against Lebanon and limited Australia to a 1-0 win in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers. It has also played two warm-up games, against Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia, losing the first 0-1 and drawing the other 0-0.
“Recently we played very well against Australia, Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia, so in one match, we fancy our chances, and we can dream of going through to the next round,” Dahoub added.
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