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The man in possession, though only just, and one of the genuinely open calls Lopetegui carries into the opener. Abunada started both pre-tournament friendlies, the Ireland defeat and the goalless draw with El Salvador in which his late intervention kept the sheet clean, and he arrives off a season for Al-Rayyan that brought him the domestic best-goalkeeper award. At 26 he is rising into his prime at the moment the position has opened up: with Saad Al Sheeb, the keeper of the 2019 and 2022 years, left out of the squad entirely, this is a new last line for Qatar and Abunada has played himself to the front of the queue. Whether he keeps the gloves against Switzerland or yields to the more established Meshaal Barsham on tournament hierarchy is the question, but behind a block pitched this deep it is his distribution and his nerve under a settled siege that will set how long Qatar can hold. A first World Cup for a goalkeeper whose timing, for once, has been impeccable.

The established alternative, and on profile the closer thing Qatar have to a settled number one — which is exactly why the goalkeeping picture is not closed. Barsham played 20 league games for Al-Sadd this season at a steady 7.16 rating and carries 54 caps, the stronger résumé of the two genuine candidates, but he found Abunada ahead of him through the warm-ups. At 28 he is in his goalkeeping prime and a veteran of the 2022 squad, so the decision Lopetegui must make is the familiar tournament one of form against standing. If Barsham is restored against Switzerland it will read as a vote for hierarchy; if not, he is an unusually credible second keeper to have on the bench, ready the moment a mistake or an injury reopens the contest.

The third goalkeeper, and on present standing the one least likely to play. At 27 Zakaria is at Al-Duhail with eight caps to his name, behind both Abunada and Barsham in a group that turned over substantially when Saad Al Sheeb was left out. A first World Cup, almost certainly as the understudy's understudy; his presence is squad balance and cover rather than a live claim on the gloves, the body every tournament squad needs and rarely uses.

The organiser of the back line and the hinge on which Lopetegui's shape-shifting depends, an Algerian-born defender who has been a constant of Qatar's central defence through the whole golden run. Khoukhi is why Qatar can move between a four and a five without the dressing room relearning its habits — the reference point everyone else arranges themselves around — and at the other end he is a real set-piece threat, an unusually productive 21 goals in 121 caps for a centre-back. His club season was a near ever-present one for Al-Sadd, 16 starts across 18 league appearances. At 35 he is firmly a veteran, one of the survivors of both the 2019 Asian Cup triumph and the 2022 ordeal, and this is in all likelihood his final World Cup. The cost of all that experience is pace: he is precisely the man opponents will try to drag into open grass, and the entire defensive plan — narrow, deep, screened — exists to make sure that footrace never happens. A pillar of the era, asked for one more tournament of intelligence to cover what the legs no longer give.

The Portuguese-born centre-back alongside Khoukhi, another naturalised pillar of the Aspire-era spine and a teammate of long standing at Al-Sadd. He guards the right side of the back three and the channel beside the wing-back, a reader of danger more than a sprinter, which is the whole point of him in a block built to refuse the central lanes. At 35, and having just passed a hundred caps, he is a veteran of the 2019 and 2022 sides for whom this is a last tournament; the shared years with Khoukhi and the wider Al-Sadd contingent are exactly the chemistry Lopetegui is betting can hold a low-scoring match together. The same caveat applies as to his partner — if the midfield screen arrives late and the game opens into a footrace, his age is the fault line — but on standing and understanding he starts. One of the last of a defence that conquered Asia.

The duel-defender of the projected back three, and the one starting place clouded by a fitness question. Laye, at Al-Arabi, came off injured late in the El Salvador draw, replaced by Al Hashmi Al Hussein, and with no diagnosis confirmed his availability for the opener needs a refresh before Switzerland. At 28 he is in his prime and, with only three caps to his name, the least-capped of the projected starters — an emerging figure rather than an established one, brought in to add legs and aggression to a centre-back unit that otherwise leans heavily on veterans. His selection is a small statement that Lopetegui wants at least one defender who can still cover ground at speed; if the knock keeps him out, Lucas Mendes or Al Hashmi Al Hussein steps in, and the back line tilts further toward experience over recovery pace.

The left wing-back and one of the few members of the squad earning his football outside Qatar, at Cultural Leonesa in Spain — a rare overseas posting in a group drawn almost entirely from the domestic league. His job is width and recovery in equal measure: he supplies the touchline on the left and folds back smartly into a back five the moment the ball turns over, the kind of two-way running the system asks of both flank players. At 26 he is in his prime and a 68-cap international already, a settled first-choice rather than a project, part of the bridge between the Asian Cup core and whatever comes after it. His move to Spanish football gives him a different tactical schooling from most of his teammates, and in a side this reliant on structure, a wing-back who understands distances is worth more than one who simply overlaps.

The right wing-back, and at 21 the youngest of the projected starters by some distance — the clearest glimpse of the next Qatar in an XI built around the last one. He gives the shape its width on the right and its first recovery lane back into the five, an athletic, forward-running profile that the older spine behind him cannot offer. On six caps he is emerging rather than established, with his best years entirely ahead, and a first World Cup at this age is a platform to grow on rather than a stage he is expected to own. His standing at Al-Gharafa earned him the trust; whether he holds the role across three games against quicker, more experienced wide men is one of the quieter tests of the tournament for Qatar, and one of the more interesting for what it says about the side's future.

The Brazilian-born centre-back of the squad's naturalised layer, at Al-Wakrah, and the senior cover for the back three. At 35 he is a veteran on 26 caps, the kind of experienced body Lopetegui kept precisely for the scenario the staff are watching: if Issa Laye's knock keeps him out, Mendes is one of the men who steps straight in. He is a left-footed defender, which helps balance a back line, and a tournament-ready professional rather than a locked starter. Depth with real standing behind the first-choice trio, and another of the folded-in foreign-born players who broadened the Aspire core.

A young centre-back at Al-Arabi who came off the bench for the injured Laye against El Salvador, which puts him directly in line should that injury linger. At 22 and on eight caps he is emerging, one of the handful of genuine youth picks in a veteran-heavy defence, and his minutes here will depend almost entirely on the fitness of others. A first World Cup at the start of a career rather than the end of one; for now he is cover, but the late-friendly substitution showed Lopetegui is willing to turn to him, and a back line this old needs its younger insurance ready.

A left-sided full-back at Al-Duhail providing depth on the flank, an alternative to Homam Al Amin in the wide defensive roles. At 30 he is in his peak years but, on 16 caps, has spent this cycle as a squad man rather than a fixture, behind the more settled wing-back options. He offers Lopetegui a different body if a flank needs freshening or if the shape shifts, but he is unlikely to start barring injury or a tactical rethink. Rotation cover on a teamsheet where the wide defensive spots are reasonably well stocked.

The first screen in front of the back line, the anchor of the midfield three who did the holding work in the El Salvador send-off. Fathi's brief is unglamorous and central to everything: sit, protect the veteran centre-backs, and clean up the turnovers that follow whenever Afif's invention misfires further forward. At 33 he is a seasoned international rather than a star name, at Al-Arabi, the sort of disciplined, positionally honest player a survival plan is built on rather than around. His standing is functional — Assim Madibo replaced him at half-time against El Salvador and pushes him for the role — but the job he does is the difference between Qatar's block staying compact and Qatar's defenders being left to chase. A first-choice piece whose value will only be noticed when it goes missing.

The more advanced of the midfield two, the box-to-box connector who steps up to support the press and drops back into the screen, at Al-Rayyan. He partnered Fathi in the final friendly, and at 24, with 33 caps already, he is the youngest of the central midfielders and one of the few in that unit with the legs to do the up-and-down running a low block demands when it has to break forward. He sits squarely in the bridge generation — young enough to be part of Qatar's future, established enough to start now. His job is to give the side a connection between a defence that wants to stay deep and an attack that breathes through Afif; how well he links those two distances, without leaving Fathi exposed beside him, is one of the system's live balances. A first World Cup for a player Lopetegui clearly trusts.

The purest screening midfielder in the squad and the strongest alternative to the starting pair, a holding player at Al-Wakrah who came on for Fathi at half-time against El Salvador. Madibo started 13 league games this season at a 6.83 rating, and at 29, in his peak years, he gives Lopetegui a heavier, more defensive option if a quicker opponent threatens to run through the middle. He was a part of the 2019 and 2022 squads, so this is no newcomer — rather a familiar, combative presence who could yet force his way into the XI if the staff decide the screen needs more protection than legs. The kind of rotation piece whose selection would itself be a tactical signal: more caution, fewer risks.

A French-born midfielder of long standing, one of the most-capped men in the squad on 121 appearances and a survivor of every chapter of this generation, from the 2019 title to 2022 and on to now. At 35 Boudiaf is a veteran at Al-Duhail whose role has narrowed to depth and game-management: he and Madibo are the heavier-legged alternatives Lopetegui can turn to when a lead, or a draw, needs shutting down late. This is in all likelihood his last World Cup, the closing act for one of the durable constants of the golden core. He may not start, but he is exactly the experienced screening body a side built to defend narrow leads wants to be able to introduce after the hour.

Another of the 121-cap elders of this team, a midfielder at Al-Rayyan who has been part of the Qatar setup throughout the era that brought two Asian Cups. At 35 Hatem is a veteran offering experience and squad depth rather than a starting claim, one of the band of senior figures — alongside Boudiaf, Khoukhi, Pedro Miguel and Al Haydos — whose tournament memory Lopetegui kept deliberately. This is, by any reasonable reckoning, his final World Cup. His minutes are likely to be measured, but his presence is part of the shared dressing-room vocabulary that the whole survival plan leans on. One of the last of a generation that changed what Qatar could expect of itself.

A tall young defensive midfielder at Al-Shamal, at 22 one of the squad's clearer nods to the future in a midfield otherwise stocked with men a decade or more his senior. On ten caps he is emerging, well down the order behind Fathi, Gaber, Madibo and Boudiaf, and unlikely to feature unless the tournament runs long or injuries bite. A first World Cup as an education rather than an expectation; his selection over more sentimental senior names is a small sign of where the next cycle is meant to come from.

The one player Qatar can plausibly build an attack around, and the figure the whole side is arranged to serve — the inside-left creator who receives between the lines, carries across the face of midfield and tries to release Edmilson on the right or find Almoez in the box. Afif is the difference between Qatar being merely compact and Qatar being dangerous: give him early touches in the half-spaces and he can make a stronger side nervous, leave him to spend seventy minutes receiving with his back to goal and two defenders on him, and the whole attack goes dark. The defining tactical question of the tournament for Qatar is, in effect, the Afif question — high enough to threaten, deep enough to help them escape pressure, and watching where he takes his first touch is the truest read on whether the side is surviving or actually playing. The numbers behind the reputation are real: a commanding domestic season for Al-Sadd, 15 goals and 12 assists in 22 league starts at an 8.30 rating, the standout creative force in the competition. He is a two-time Asian Player of the Year and was named player of the tournament at the 2023 Asian Cup, where he converted three penalties in the final against Jordan to win it. At 29 he is in the fullest part of his peak, the face of the post-2019 project and, with the veterans around him fading, the bridge between the side that conquered Asia and whatever Qatar becomes next. This is the World Cup on which his standing away from the continent will be measured; everything the team hopes to do runs through where, and how early, he gets the ball.

Qatar's record scorer and the emotional reference point of the attack — and the most awkward selection call on the whole teamsheet. The history is overwhelming: 55 goals in 119 caps, the record-breaking top scorer of the 2019 Asian Cup, and the leading marksman of the 2026 qualifying cycle with a dozen goals, the man whose finishing dragged Qatar to a tournament earned rather than gifted. Yet the freshest evidence complicates the picture. His club season was barely there — just four league appearances for Al-Duhail after injury — and Lopetegui benched him against Ireland and ran the El Salvador attack through Afif, Abdurisag and Edmilson, so his place in the opening XI is a live question rather than a certainty. At 29 he should be squarely in his peak, but the lost club season leaves him short of rhythm at the worst possible moment. He remains the reference point all the same, projected to start because his national-team muscle memory is real and contagious — if he plays and scores against Switzerland, the side's whole emotional temperature lifts, and Qatar have stolen continental finals on exactly this kind of moment. The alternative is that he becomes the high-impact lever from the bench while Yusuf Abdurisag stretches the line from the start. Either way this is a tournament that matters to his legacy: the chance to prove the record traveller is still the player, away from the comforts of Asia, that the numbers say he was.

The captain, and the most resonant story in the squad — a man who retired from international football after the 2023 Asian Cup and came back, at Lopetegui's request, not because Qatar were short of wingers but because the room needed his voice for one more campaign. At 35, with 185 caps and 41 goals behind him, Al Haydos is no longer the legs-and-transitions player he was; what he offers now is leadership, the dressing room's memory, and one of Qatar's few reliable routes to a goal against a better side through his dead-ball delivery to Khoukhi and Almoez. His comeback is precisely the kind of local story the English-language previews skip — a captain returning out of responsibility rather than ambition, careful in his public words to avoid empty hero language and to insist only that the team needs a positive result against Switzerland. He may not be a locked starter, and his open-play running profile at 35 means his minutes are likely to be controlled, but as a set-piece option introduced after the hour in a tight game he makes complete sense. He is the elder statesman of a golden generation, two Asian Cups won as its captain, and this is unambiguously his last World Cup — a closing act granted by his own decision to come back. When he finally steps away, an entire era of Qatari football goes with him.

The direct wide forward and transition release, and the likeliest reason Qatar threaten through anything beyond set pieces and Afif's invention — a Belgian-born, naturalised attacker folded in beside the old core. His job is to take the ball off Afif's shoulder and turn defending into something that hurts the other end, sparing the creator the running he cannot afford to do alone. At 31 he is in his peak years, a productive presence at Al-Duhail this season with 5 goals and an assist in 19 starts at a 7.27 rating that made him a fixture. He started the final friendly and combined with Afif for one of the side's few moments of real menace. Part of the layer of foreign-born players who broadened the Aspire generation, he is a first-choice piece whose pace and carry are, after Afif, the most plausible source of a goal against a quicker, better-organised opponent.

The mobile forward who could yet upend the No. 9 debate, a wide-and-central runner at Al-Wakrah who started both warm-ups as part of the Afif–Edmilson–Abdurisag front line. If Lopetegui keeps faith with the El Salvador attack, Abdurisag starts ahead of Almoez as a forward who stretches the last line rather than occupies it, his movement a different problem for defenders than the record scorer's penalty-box presence. At 26 he is in his prime and a 38-cap international, more than squad filler — a genuine contender for a starting role whose late-friendly minutes give him a real claim. His World Cup may hinge entirely on a single selection decision: the mobile runner from the start, or the impact option if Almoez gets the nod. Either way, a meaningful piece of the attack rather than a passenger.

A tall, physical centre-forward at Al-Gharafa whose name carries a particular weight: his header against Senegal was Qatar's only goal of the entire 2022 World Cup, the lone bright point of a campaign that ended without a single one elsewhere. At 32, on 70 caps with 16 goals, he is a veteran offering a different forward profile from the bench — an aerial target and a focal point if Qatar need to go more direct late in a game. He is rotation depth rather than a starter behind Almoez, Abdurisag and the Afif-led attack, but his standing as a scorer at the previous World Cup, however solitary that goal, gives him a small place in the side's recent history that few of his teammates can claim.

A wide forward at Al-Rayyan, at 33 a seasoned international on 68 caps and eight goals, here as attacking depth rather than a fixture. He has held his place in the wider pool for years across this generation without being a regular starter, and in a tournament squad he is the kind of experienced option Lopetegui can turn to from the bench to see out a flank or change the rhythm. This is most likely a last World Cup for a long-serving squad man, well down the attacking order behind the first-choice names but a useful, familiar body in a group that values shared years.

A wide attacker at Al-Gharafa, at 25 entering his prime but, on 13 caps, still on the fringe of the side. He is squad depth in a forward group led by Afif, Almoez, Edmilson and Abdurisag, unlikely to feature unless the tournament opens up or injuries thin the attack. A first World Cup for a player who has earned his place in the pool through the cycle without yet establishing himself as a starter — one of the names here to round out the squad rather than to shape its matches.

At 19 the youngest player in the squad and one of its few true youth picks, a wide forward at Al-Duhail with just three caps to his name. His selection is plainly about the future rather than the present: in a squad built on veteran chemistry he is the glimpse of what comes after this generation, here to absorb a World Cup rather than to influence one. He is most unlikely to feature barring unusual circumstances, but a teenager carried to a finals as part of the development of the next cycle is exactly the kind of pick Qatar's Aspire project was designed to make. Squad depth now, with the whole of his career still ahead of him.