The city came alive and fireworks lit the night sky as residents celebrated Qatar's semi-final berth, a scene that contrasted with the spirits of the Thai players whose quest for a third semi-final spot crumbled before their eyes.

Thailand had only themselves to blame after giving up three easy goals in the wake of a Group C Stage in which they didn't surrender a score.

And when opportunity knocked, they let it slip away.

In front of noisy fans and HH The Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, the host team initiated the scoring when Khalfan Ibrahim Al Khalfan, currently Asia's best player, punished a rebound off Thai goalie Kosin Hathairattanakool in the 26th minute after he failed to hold a shot from Hussain Yaser Abdulrahman.

Thailand's best chance to put a goal on the board came in the 43rd minute, when Anon Sangsanoi launched a long blast that was denied by Qatar keeper Ahmed Mohamed Saqr.

The home team, relying on better chemistry and speed, kept up the pressure, and their hard work paid dividends. In a bad case of deja vu, Al Khalfan latched onto another Abdulrahman rebound just five minutes from the second half.

The stadium roared with jubilation and grew even louder when Abdulla Obaid Koni wrong-footed to flick the ball neatly past Kosin in the 52nd minute.

The spirits of the Thai team sank noticeably from here, and they were scarcely allowed inside the Qatar penalty area. Thailand's last chance came in the 83rd minute with striker Teeratep Winothai firing a 10-metre shot over the net.

Despite the team's inability to reach its goal of reaching the semi-finals, national coach Chanwit Pholchivin concluded that his players, both first team and substitutes, passed the test.

"Judging from the defence and offence, we can play every team. But we still have to improve on personal abilities. Under pressure, players make mistakes in terms of finishing the points and staying on guard, which explains why we lost goals,'' he said. Chanwit's next assignment is supervising the team in the King's Cup, which takes place in Bangkok on December 24.

Qatar coach Dzemaludin Musovic was delighted: "If you look at all four games we have played, we deserved our win and our place in the semi-finals. Especially today. My team played very well; we got a good goal early on.''

His team plays defending champion Iran tomorrow. Iran edged China 8-7 in a shoot-out.

In regulation, Arash Borhani beat the offside trap and faked past China keeper Wang Dalei to put Iran ahead. But China levelled the match after the break when Feng Xiaoting scored off a 51st-minute corner. China were soon down to 10 men, however, with Zhu Ting shown a red card in the 63rd minute for a dangerous foul.

China edged ahead eight minutes into extra time when Zhou Haibin chipped in a shot from the edge of the box. But Iran responded immediately when Hosseini Koshkebejar latched onto a long ball and blasted a shot past the keeper.

In the resulting shoot-out, Zhao Ming was the unfortunate Chinese player to miss—cracking his effort against the woodwork to trigger wild scenes of joy from the Iranian players and their large contingent of fans.

"I dedicate the goal to all Iranian people and to the crowd," said an ecstatic Borhani afterward.

The other semi-final will feature Iraq and South Korea. Iraq moved past Uzbekistan 2-1, while South Korean blanked North Korea in an epic quarter-final showdown.

Yingrak Raksuwan

The Nation