“No Canadian will forget this day. There’ll be 40 million people that said they were here, and it’s an incredibly seminal moment for everyone to understand that there’s talent in this country, that there’s mentality, that there’s desire, that there’s a lot of things that make this country special,” said Canadian men’s football coach Jesse Marsch.

Marsch had called on the fans and players to make their presence felt in Qatar, and both delivered on Thursday, with the game kicking off at 11:00 p.m. 

Cyle Larin scored first. David scored a hat-trick. Nathan Saliba added to the scoreline, and an own goal by Qatar’s Mohamed Al-Mannai completed the rout.

The game witnessed two red cards being shown to two Qatari players. While Homan Al-Amin was sent off in the 33rd minute for a last-man challenge on Canada’s Tajon Buchanan, Assim Madibo’s yellow card was converted into a red in the 53rd minute for a late challenge on Canada’s Ismael Kone, who had to be stretchered off with oxygen.

Qatar coach, Julen Lopetegui, speaking on the match, said, “It was a tough match, because everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. That’s how football is sometimes. It was a very tough match for many reasons. The players did their best. It was very difficult to face this match with two players less with this environment.”

With their 1-1 draw against Bosnia-Herzegovina, in their opener on Friday, Canada are now top of the group with four points, but only on goal difference ahead of second-placed Switzerland. Canada and Switzerland will lock horns in the final group game on Wednesday.