{"id":749166,"date":"2026-06-20T16:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T16:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/749166\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T16:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T16:40:09","slug":"eustaquios-canada-thrash-lopeteguis-qatar-take-big-world-cup-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/749166\/","title":{"rendered":"Eust\u00e1quio’s Canada thrash Lopetegui’s Qatar, take big World Cup step"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canada took a decisive step in the early hours of Friday towards qualifying for the next stage of the 2026 World Cup<\/a>, thrashing Julen Lopetegui\u2019s Qatar 6-0 in a match played in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

Jonathan David scored a hat-trick, securing Canada\u2019s first ever World Cup<\/a> win and putting the co-hosts top of Group B, ahead of Switzerland.<\/p>\n

Despite a clearly dominant display, the Canadian national team suffered a significant setback. Ismael Kon\u00e9 went off injured early in the second half, leaving the pitch with a red inflatable boot on his left leg following a very hard challenge from Assim Madibo. The Qatar player was sent off, leaving his team down to ten men.<\/p>\n

Shortly after coming on to replace Kon\u00e9, Nathan Saliba produced one of the moments of the match by converting a direct free-kick that all but sealed the result. The score became even more emphatic with an own goal from Mohamed Manai, before Jonathan David<\/a> rounded off the scoring in stoppage time by completing his hat-trick with a left-footed strike.<\/p>\n

Qatar had already been reduced in numbers in the 34th minute, when Homam Ahmed was sent off for a foul on Tajon Buchanan. Initially, the incident was given as a penalty, but VAR intervention led to the decision being overturned, as the offence took place outside the box.<\/p>\n

With this result, Canada and Switzerland both have four points after two matches, but the Canadians sit top of Group B thanks to their superior goal difference.<\/p>\n

In the final round of the group stage, Canada will face Switzerland on 24 June in Vancouver, while Qatar will take on Bosnia and Herzegovina in Seattle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada took a decisive step in the early hours of Friday towards qualifying for the next stage of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-749166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}