Before the games of FIFA World Cup, the performance kicked off the evening with Egyptian artist Amr Diab. Al-Hilal won the penalty shootout 4-1 after a 1-1 tie in regulation time. The event at Lusail Stadium, which has the biggest capacity among World Cup hosts, sold out all 80,000 tickets. The stadium, which is in the new city of Lusail, will host ten World Cup games, including the opening and championship matches between Qatar and Ecuador.
According to the committee, the inspiration for Lusail, whose construction cost 700 million euros, was “the play of shadows and lights that defines the traditional “fanar” lantern,” The stadium staged a Catari Championship game between Al Arabi and Al-Rayyan on August 11 prior to this official launch. The Lusail Super cup game on Friday marked the opening of the new stadium for Lusail. With 80,000 seats, it is the biggest of Qatar’s eight World Cup stadiums and was built to host the championship match on December 18.
The smallest Middle Eastern nation, Qatar, hosted the World Cup for the first time. Unusual for a World Cup, it has never held an event of this size that will take place within or around a single city despite spending billions of dollars on infrastructure.
On Friday, exactly 77,575 people—the largest and most influential audience in Qatar—passed through the turnstiles. Families brought children to the stadium before Egyptian singer Amr Diab’s performance. Hundreds of Saudi fans donned the blue shirt of Al Hilal, the Saudi team who defeated Egypt’s Zamalek in penalties after a 1-1 draw.
A supporter leaving the stadium shouted, elbowed a policeman in the neck, and broke the cordon to get to the metro, which was then done by a number of other fans. Despite the station’s entrance being 400 meters from the stadium, a long line of spectators formed and crossed a vacant lot. Authorities claim that it was done to avert a stampede.
