El Salvador loses to Qatar and pressure grows for Gold Cup

If unnecessary, the tour in Croatia for El Salvador ended up setting off the alarms within the team. The first game against NK Istra was damaging, but not really something to worry about due to the tests Hugo Pérez did to see new men. However, falling against Qatar and with the starting box was not what was planned this afternoon.

Before saying anything, the dominance of the party was total for the Central Americans, even crazy at minute 20 it seemed that it would help them when Abdoulaziz Hatim was sent off for a slap on Jairo Henríquez. Unfortunately, we cannot tell that story on this occasion because, if your best shooter is Alexander Larín -or the most proactive-, you were going to be able to do little in the match.

The first half went to zero to zero without great moments in front of the goals of Mario González and Meshaal Barsham, but the next part would be different and not exactly for La Selecta. Almoez Ali became much more proactive and, while Joshua Pérez and the rest of the group kept thinking about the penalty that could have been scored for them, The Qatar forward began to intimidate González’s goal and at 69 ‘he took advantage of Roberto Domínguez’s fall to define in solitude and high on the right side of the Alianza goalkeeper.

At that moment, jorg. The best thing for them was a rebound that Erick Rivera left in Tareq Salman, but Barsham deflected perfectly and, although Larín had a last free kick on the edge of the larger rectangle, Pérez’s men gave up by the minimum and will have to fix many things not to add to this list of defeats against Curaçao.

First losing streak for Hugo Pérez

The arrival of Hugo Pérez to the El Salvador National Team had been perfect. Their perfect pace in the first knockout rounds of CONCACAF led them to enter the Octagonal Final for the 2022 Qatar World Cup and against Guatemala they had kept a good draw. These two games in Croatia are the first of the era that did not benefit the group and came at the worst possible moment. In case of being extended into the Gold Cup, reaching the Qualifiers with that moment can be a great damage.