Sanchez: "Qatar must find 'A Game' to avoid World Cup embarrassment"

Defeat on Friday would mean the earliest-ever exit for a host nation - South Africa also went out at the group stage in 2010 - but were still alive heading into their third match. Reigning Asian champions Qatar became the first hosts to lose their opening game after freezing in a dispiriting 2-0 defeat to Ecuador. Sanchez backed his players to overcome their stage fright against African champions Senegal and show their quality.

"We hope that now we are free from all the pressure that we had in the opening match," he said at his pre-match press conference on Thursday. "I hope we can compete and bring our 'A Game' and show that we can be more competitive than we were the other day. We are playing a very high-level team so we need to prove ourselves, play our game and see what happens."