Qatar beaten by Northern Irish side Linfield in friendly

A dark day for the proud footballing nation of Qatar.

Qatar's footballers have suffered a surprise defeat in their preparations for their own World Cup, losing a warmup game against Linfield of the Northern Irish Premiership. Qatar, who will compete in their first World Cup later this year on home soil, faced Linfield in Marbella, where Chris McKee scored the only goal of the game. The World Cup hosts fielded a side which included seven of the players that started their goalless draw with Slovenia in March. https://twitter.com/OfficialBlues/status/1539299883559141377 Just to put some perspective on how incredible this result is, the Northern Ireland national team drew 1-1 against Qatar in 2015, while the Republic of Ireland beat Qatar 4-0 last October. Qatar will face off against Ecuador in their opening World Cup fixture and will also play against the Netherlands and Senegal in what will be the nation's first-ever World Cup finals. Tuesday's game between the two sides was also the first of Linfield's pre-season preparations as they focus on their Champions League qualifiers. David Healy's side will go up against Welsh side, The New Saints, playing the first leg in Wales before hosting the return fixture at Windsor Park.

Linfield are regulars against international opposition.

Linfield's win against Qatar isn't the first time they have gone up against international opposition either, having played Kenya and Argentina before. The Northern Irish side beat Kenya 1-0 at Windsor Park during a fixture in September, 2002. They lost by a single goal to Argentina in 1990 as they prepared for that year's World Cup.