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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Oisin Doherty

Liam Brady slams 'no hopers' Qatar as World Cup hosts fall to 2-0 defeat

Liam Brady has slammed 'no hopers' Qatar for their lack of quality as the World Cup hosts fell to defeat in their opening group match.

Qatar were thoroughly outclassed by Ecuador for virtually the entire 90 minutes, with former West Ham striker bagging a brace in a dominant win for the South American side. Ecuador raced into a two-goal lead after half an hour, before putting on the brakes and settling for the convincing win.

After the game Liam Brady, along with fellow RTE pundit Richie Sadlier, bemoaned the lack of quality on display from the host nation.

READ MORE: Qatar 0-2 Ecuador recap and result as Enner Valencia double consigns hosts to defeat

"They were no hopers coming into the tournament," said Brady, "If Ireland can beat Qatar 4-0 with the team we currently have, it tells you a lot about Qatar."

Richie Sadlier was equally unimpressed by the showing of the host nation, and believes that the quality of team should be a factor when FIFA decide what country will host the World Cup.

"They were just awful," said Sadlier, "It seems completely pointless to say this given all the other reasons we spoke about before as to why they shouldn't be hosts, but I think a certain footballing standard should be required of any bidding nation.

"At half-time, losing 2-0 fair enough. But if you're going into a second half protecting a 2-0 lead, you're going to expect a lot like an increase in tempo in the team that were chasing you - There was none of that.

"Fight, but they didn't really seem to muster that. A loud raucous home crowd, but as Liam said, they started to leave quite early on.

"That was as poor an opening game - That was awful stuff, really awful stuff."

In terms of Ecuador, while they were impressive, Brady believes it is difficult to gauge how good they are given the lack of quality Qatar showed.

"I was quite impressed with Ecuador. Valencia was very good. It's a good story he's 33 years of age and that's his 37th goal in 75 games. He's done really well for his country.

"But for Qatar it's an uphill battle. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't score a goal in the competition."

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