"We thank God for this victory and our success in making our fans happy after a long absence from the Asian Cup and the final round of the World Cup qualifiers,” said the midfielder.

"I thank my teammates for our strong performance. Now we have a difficult stage ahead of us, in which we must focus and prepare better.”

Rashedi said Kuwait had worked hard after missing out on qualification for the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023™. 

"For a year and a half, we have been preparing for this moment, but now we have finished this stage, and we must prepare for the next stage.

“It is a more difficult challenge and we must become stronger in order to continue making our fans happy.”

While Kuwait celebrated their return to the third round of FIFA World Cup qualifying, group winners Qatar showed resilience to come from behind to defeat India 2-1. 

Opting to field a young side, Qatar found themselves trailing but turned their fortunes around with late goals from Youssef Ayman and Ahmed Al Rawi.

“We were able to fight back after we regained our composure in the second half. Initially we fell behind but in the end we got the result. Our goal was to get the victory against India, and we achieved this goal,” said head coach Marquez Lopez, with his side finishing top of the group with 16 points.