Doha, May 09 (QNA) - The Palestine national football team aspires to achieve positive results during the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023, by showing up for the third time, to achieve positive results and create new history. The team eyes to get past the rounds it had reached in the two previous championships in 2015-2019.

There are 24 teams that will compete in the championship during the period from Jan.12, 2024, to Feb.10, 2024, on Al Janoub Stadium, Education City Stadium, Al Bayt Stadium, Al Thumama Stadium, Khalifa International Stadium, Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium and Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium.

The team reached the finals of the tournament successfully this year after finishing top with three wins in Group B, qualifying for the Asian Cup for the third time respectively, with 4-0 victory over Philippines on the stadium of Mongolian Football Federation, Ulaanbaatar, within the third and final round of 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification Group B.

For the first time in history, the team competed in the finals of 2015 after it was knocked out of group stage, similar to the edition of 2019 in United Arab Emirates, and qualified for their third straight AFC Asian Cup finals after achieving 9 points in 3 victories, with Philippines coming in second place with 4 points, followed by Mongolia with 3 points and Yemen with only one point.

Palestine scored 10 goals from the total 13 goals, with 2.16 goals per match, and the second win of Palestine over Yemen 5-0 was the highest record of the results during the group competitions, when Palestine defeated Mongolia 1-0 in the first round, and Yemen 5-0 in the second round.

Ultimately, Palestine shined in Group B after achieving three victories to qualify for the Asian Cup finals for the third time in row.

Palestine is waiting for the results of the championship's draw on May 11, 2023, as the team comes in the third level with Bahrain, Syria, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon, as per FIFA classification, and aspires to achieve a victory in 2023 edition after it failed in the knock-out phase in 2019 AFC Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

After becoming member in FIFA in 1998, Palestine competed in the world cup and Asian cup qualifiers, starting from the 2002 FIFA World Cup and 2000 Continental Championships, and faced vexing challenges to remain in the championships and prove itself to the world.

The team started to make its way to success since 2015 AFC Asian Cup version, and qualified for the Asian championship, after crowned the AFC Challenge Cup 2014 champions.

Subsequently, it succeeded in qualifying for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup for the second time in row, through normal qualifiers, came in the third place in the main qualifiers, finished its journey in the second place in the group, and qualified as one of the best teams to occupy the second place.

The qualifiers of 2023 edition confirm the rapid evolution the Palestinian football made when it topped group in the second round and directly qualified, while the arrival of Palestine at the Asian Cup underscores the great job of the Palestinian Football Association which tries to develop the team that features a group of distinguished footballers who started to make difference on the pitch.

The continuous presence of the team in the Asian cup will indubitably give the Palestinians a feeling of strong presence at the football level in Asia, as the team contends with some difficulties in the training process due to the surrounding circumstances, including difficulty of movement to play matches, but it started to move smoothly imposing itself as one of the good Arab football team that will maintain its presence in Asia Cup Championship.

Qatar has been making equal steps with Iran,Thailand and the UAE in hosting the tournament twice, and affirmed that 2023 AFC Asian Cup will be a football festival in Asia that will be held on its lands, thanks to the significant expertise Qatar has acquired through hosting the world cup 2022.

HE President of the Qatar Football Association Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al-Thani promised the tournament would be distinguished, and a celebration for Asia through world-class facilities.

The sporting event will continue for 30 days in Qatar, with an increase of two days compared to the previous version that lasted for 28 days in UAE in 2019, to promote the experience of the enthusiastic fans in Asia and the tournament status.

The Asian Cup that was launched in 1956 would be hosted by Qatar for the second time in 12 years, which is the third continental championship after it had organized the1988 edition.

Japan broke the record after winning the continental championship and crowned in four occasions the last one was in 2011 edition in Doha, with a title difference against Saudi Arabia and Iran, whilst South Korea holds third place with two titles, while the Qatari team was crowned the continental championship title for the first time in its history in the last edition held in the UAE in early 2019, and became the fourth Arab and Gulf team to be crowned the Asian title after Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq.

(QNA)