In its article about the match scheduled for the evening of July 23, the AP said the Qatar team's Serbian coach, Milovan Rajevac, wants to create football history as the first man to lead Qatar to the World Cup, but he has a difficult mission.

“Rajevac’s task truly begins next week (July 23) when the 94th-ranked Qataris start along their road to qualifying for Brazil 2014 in a tricky preliminary-round tie with Vietnam”, it reported.

The paper said the Vietnamese team had considered Qatar strong rivals. But after securing a convincing total score of 13-1 in two matches against Macau, the team has gained confidence for their upcoming match with Qatar in the second qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup.

Coach Rajevac caused his supporters to worry when his team lost two consecutive matches to Lausenne and Bayern Munich, and drew with Neuchatel Xamax.

Qatar was also defeated 2-1 by 147th ranked India in an earlier friendly match.

The AP quoted Vietnamese striker Cong Vinh, who scored seven times in the two matches against Macau, as saying “We respect them but are not afraid them. We will play in high spirits until the last minute.”