Among the 32 national teams that will participate in the 2022 World Cup, which will open tonight (Sunday) at 18:00, for only one this will be a debut: the host Qatar.
Also, the opening match of the prestigious tournament will also be Qatar's first ever match in the world's biggest football tournament.
Is she in the World Cup just because she got to host it?
The short answer is yes, but the story is a little different.
We have to be honest and we have to say - if Qatar had to participate in the qualifiers for the World Cup, there is a very high chance that they would have qualified for it in the end.
The evidence for this is the last Asian Championship, the one held in the United Arab Emirates in 2019.
Qatar won the title after beating Japan in the final.
Almost anyone who hasn't seen Qatar play tends to underestimate her, and that's a mistake.
Although no one thinks she will reach the advanced stages of the World Cup, she is definitely capable of qualifying for the round of 16.
The Netherlands will finish first in Group A, but Qatar can finish above Senegal - who will play without their biggest star, Sadio Mane - and above their first opponent, Ecuador, which is a team that has a very difficult time playing away from home, that is, not at the heights of Quito that give them an advantage.
While the rest of the 31 teams began their preparations for the World Cup about a week ago, the Qataris have been preparing in full force for the big day for several years now.
After winning the Asian Championship three years ago, they participated in the Copa America and impressed.
They also reached the semi-finals of the "Gold Cup" (North and Central American Championship) in 2021.
The Qataris are coming, photo: AFP
For the sake of the task, the national team players were removed from their teams and have been in a training camp for six months.
The 12 teams of the Qatari league continued to play without them until mid-September, and the league stopped after the seventh round.
Since the beginning of September, Qatar has played 11 preparatory games, and it comes to the World Cup after four consecutive victories against Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Albania.
This means that the team has a lot of confidence before the game with the Ecuadorians - but also a lot of concerns, due to the size of the class.
The one who has been leading the Qatari team for five and a half years is the 46-year-old Spanish coach Felix Sanchez, who actually raised many of the players since they were children.
Sanchez has been living and working in Qatar for 16 years.
He started his career at the famous Aspire Academy, which was established in 2006.
About 800 Qatari children then began training at the academy, and today almost 80 percent of the team's players grew up at Aspire.
In an interview with Marka, Sanchez said: "I worked at Aspire for many years, and the academy works hand in hand with the soccer association. Without this project - we would not have been able to provide excellent training conditions to the young players, who today are the basis of the national team."
Sanchez.
In the Qatar national team for five and a half years, photo: AFP
Sanchez, some of whose players trained with Xavi, who coached the former Al Sadd for about two years, added: "Qatar is a very small country, we only have 6,000 registered footballers. All our players play in the Qatari league, which is progressing, but Very far from the world's biggest leagues. We will be playing against strong and experienced teams, so it is clear to us that we will not be the favorites in any game."
So what are Qatar's chances of succeeding after all?
Sanchez explains: "At these levels, there are big gaps in terms of physicality. If we want to be competitive, it would be suicide on our part to try to be the initiative team. We will try to be compact in defense, not allow the opponents to get into situations and be strong and fast in transition attacks."
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