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\nBoualem Khoukhi scores<\/p>\n
Qatar scored a stoppage-time equaliser to snatch a 1-1 draw with Switzerland in their World Cup Group B opener at Levi’s Stadium.<\/p>\n
Breel Embolo’s first-half penalty looked to have been enough to see the Swiss start with a somewhat laboured win, but Qatar captain Boualem Khoukhi crashed in a late header to secure the 2022 hosts a first point in the World Cup finals.<\/p>\n
The Swiss had plenty of support in Santa Clara, but there appeared to be a large number of empty seats as the teams walked out at the 69,000-capacity venue, home of the San Francisco 49ers.<\/p>\n
After pictures appeared to show thousands of unoccupied seats for the Group A fixture between South Korea and the Czech Republic in Guadalajara, FIFA insisted the official attendance figure announced was accurate – stressing “several ticketed fans could be seen standing in concourses rather than staying in their assigned seats throughout the match”.<\/p>\n
Qatar, managed by former Spain boss Julen Lopetegui, had an early chance to take a shock lead when Edmilson Junior won possession off Switzerland defender Manuel Akanji to get through on goal, but his shot was straight at Gregor Kobel.<\/p>\n
Dan Ndoye saw his low effort saved by Qatar goalkeeper Mahmoud Abunada before the Nottingham Forest forward sent another first-time effort over.<\/p>\n
Switzerland were awarded a penalty in the 13th minute when Remo Freuler latched on to a downward header from Embolo and was clattered by Abunada, who then needed treatment. After a lengthy delay, as well as a VAR check for offside, Rennes frontman Embolo kept his composure to send Abunada the wrong way from the spot.<\/p>\n
Abunada then produced a fine reaction save from Ruben Vargas at his near post before, in stoppage time at the end of the first half, Michel Aebischer’s shot was cleared off the goal-line.<\/p>\n
Switzerland were soon on the front foot again after the restart when captain Granit Xhaka sent a long-range effort over, but with the heat unrelenting, the tempo dropped as the next hydration break approached. With 15 minutes left, Embolo shot into the side-netting and substitute Johan Manzambi fired narrowly wide.<\/p>\n
The Swiss were made to pay for not converting their chances when a deep cross from left-back Homam Al Amin on the overlap found its way through to defender Khoukhi at the back post, and he powered a header into the corner – sparking wild celebrations from his team-mates and on the Qatar bench.<\/p>\n
\nBoualem Khoukhi scores<\/p>\n
Watch every game of the FIFA 2026 World Cup live on RT\u00c9 with highlights on RT\u00c9 Sport digital platforms and live blogs on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Qatar scored a stoppage-time equaliser to snatch a 1-1 draw with Switzerland in their World Cup Group B…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-498577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}