The key stats behind Qatar's World Cup mauling at the hands of rampant co-hosts Canada

Jesse Marsch's co-hosts had played out a 1-1 draw with Bosnia and Herzegovina in their opener, whilst Qatar had also grabbed a point against Switzerland thanks to a late equaliser.

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Two changes for Canada, none for Qatar

It was back in September 2022 when Canada and Qatar last met, with the former earning a 2-0 friendly win at the Generali Arena.

With only the one game to follow this one to determine who would make it out of Group B, a positive result would certainly set the winning team up nicely.

Marsch had decided to bring Cyle Larin and Ali Ahmed in for Tani Oluwaseyi and Liam Millar, whilst Julen Lopetegui had named an unchanged XI from the one that shocked the Swiss.

Though Edmilson Junior had the first effort at goal in the opening minute for Qatar, they were quickly on the back foot, as Jonathan David managed two shots on target whilst Stephen Eustaquio saw his effort blocked.

Larin breaks the deadlock

The difference in quality was clear, and an astonishingly poor 30% pass completion from Qatar's Ayoub Al Oui, coupled with Pedro Miguel's 61.1%, rather summed up their difficulties in trying to get a foothold.

With the entire Canadian team posting completion stats of 80% and above, bar Larin's 76.9% and David's 76.2%, it was only going to be a matter of time before they broke the deadlock, which they did in the 16th minute, thanks to Larin's second goal for his country, making him the highest scoring Canadian player in the World Cup since 1965/66.

The hosts didn't need to get out of second gear for the vast majority of the game, and incredibly, Edmilson Junior's first-minute effort would be the only touch that Qatar would have in Canada's box for the entire match. 

An attacking bombardment from the Canadian's had their opponents committing fouls left, right and centre, and the Qatari's simply couldn't contain Tajon Buchanan out wide, or Larin and David more centrally.

Red card makes Qatar's difficult assignment impossible

The trio between them had an astonishing 39 touches in the Qatar box, and one of those soon saw a second goal, as David opened his World Cup account just before the half hour.

Not long after, and with Homam El Amin having already been warned about his conduct, his professional foul eventually earned him a direct red card.

What was already a difficult assignment for Qatar became impossible at that point, and Canada's attacking was incessant.

Buchanan's shot was cleared off the line as half-time approached, before David definitively ended the game as a contest in first-half stoppage time with his second goal of the game.

No wonder there was a party atmosphere in the stands.

Canada in full control after second red for Qatar

Although Qatar were largely to blame for their own downfall, Issa Laye and Boualem Khoukhi were at least attempting to stem the tide. The former won all four of his one-on-one challenges in the match, with the latter winning four of his six attempts.

A consistent loss of possession from their colleagues - Ayoub Al Oui and Akram Afif would lose the ball 24 times between them - tempered their ability to get back into the match, however.

The second half began in much the same manner as the first had ended, but within eight minutes, Ismaeil Kone's tournament was over after he had his leg broken by a wild Assim Madibo challenge, for which he was rightly sent off.

With Qatar now down to nine men, we were then treated to Lopetegui attempting to play a back seven at times, in what had become a backs-against-the-wall defensive performance to limit the damage.

Saliba's screamer

Shots had consistently rained down on Mahmoud Abunada's goal, with Larin and David having nine between them before the hour mark, and just seven minutes after replacing Kone, Nathan Saliba added his name to the scoresheet with Canada's fourth, thanks to a wonderful right-footed effort from outside the box.

Given how often Qatar's players were on the back foot, it is surprising that all but Khoukhi and Jassem Gaber made only one tackle each in the game.

That inability to get up close and personal to Canada's players without fouling them was always going to lead to further punishment, too, both in a literal sense and by conceding again.

With 15 minutes to play, Mohammad Al Manai's awful evening was topped off by his own goal. The half-time sub for Qatar had only managed one tackle in the game, which he'd not completed successfully, made a solitary interception and conceded a foul.

David bags a hat-trick

Saliba, fellow sub Jacob Shaffelburg, and Buchanan continued to torment the Qatar defence in the latter stages, and a total of 10 shots between them gives a further indication of Canada's dominance.

David saw two late efforts blocked, but he wouldn't be denied his hat-trick, rounding off a six-goal mauling during injury time.

The post-match stats certainly make for grim reading for Lopetegui. 

Two shots compared to 32 from Canada, that solitary touch in the box, whilst allowing 97 collective touches from the Canucks in their own area, 21% collective possession to Canada's 79%... 

The only metrics in which Qatar were better were for tackles made (16 - 9), tackles won (10 - 5), interceptions (10 - 6) and fouls (10 - 9), but that's of no real consequence to Lopetegui and his backroom team, who will go into their final game against Bosnia and Herzegovina looking for a vast improvement.

Check out the match stats here.

Jason Pettigrove has been the features writer for Flashscore since 2025, utilising Opta data to form the basis of his articles. He has previously worked for high profile football clubs, news and media outlets, both in print and digital, and can usually be found watching FC Barcelona when time permits. You can read more of his pieces here.