Sultan Al-Brake has spent much of his career in the periphery, never becoming quite the name that gets mentioned first. At Al Duhail, he is the kind of squad member a club finds vital and dependable.

With Qatar, the story had remained equally quiet until the valuable shifts against Oman and the UAE in qualifying. A workhorse who drives up and down the left, Al-Brake can whip crosses in and seldom shies away from a duel, aerial or otherwise.

The interesting footnote is Homam Ahmed, who could take up Al-Brake’s position in the eleven and is currently at Cultural Leonesa, the same Spanish side where Al-Brake himself once had a stint.