PANAMA (AP) — With a superb goal, Gabriel Torres gave Panama a consolation prize by beating Canada 1-0 at home on Wednesday to conclude the CONCACAF qualifying round for the World Cup in Qatar.

Torres caused euphoria at the Rommel Fernández Stadium when he landed an acrobatic shot in which he lifted his right leg to hit a precise cross from José Luis Rodríguez in the 49th minute.

Canada, who entered the match with a ticket in hand en route to Qatar as the final octagon leader, had the chance to level the score, but American referee Jair Marrufo resorted to the video replay to cancel out Cyle Larin’s goal in the 79th. minutes for an advanced position.

Panama, who reached this last match without any chance of advancing to the World Cup qualifiers, finished fifth with 21 points. Despite this, coach Thomas Christiansen has expressed his desire to continue in the position.

“I want to stay,” said the Spanish-Danish strategist. “It’s not just the economic issue. We want other things to improve everyone”.

For Canada, it was only their second loss of the tournament. But that didn’t stop them from finishing the draw in first position with 28 points, the same amount as Mexico, but with a better goal difference compared to the French.

Torres celebrated his 22nd goal in the national shirt in his 100th game.

The goal action started when Cecilio Waterman kicked Rodríguez down the left wing, from where he took the cross which ended up in the upper part of the goal with a superb shot from halfway up.

Panama showed a different attitude than at the weekend, when they were beaten 5-1 on their visit to the United States.

At the back, goalkeeper Luis Ricardo Mejía avoided the equalizer in the 60th minute when he displayed his excellent reflexes to deflect Jonathan David’s close-range shot into one of Canada’s few clear options.

For the World Cup in Qatar, which will take place in November and December, Canada, Mexico and the United States have qualified directly from CONCACAF. Costa Rica will look to add their name to the roster in June, when they face New Zealand in the intercontinental qualifiers

Canada will only be at its second World Cup, having been in Mexico in 1986.

“We’ve covered thousands of kilometres,” said Canadian coach John Herdman. “We played many minutes. We kicked all the balls. We never gave up and we are on our way to Qatar, like the first in CONCACAF. I will sleep well tonight.”

Panama are ruled out of a World Cup again after qualifying for their only fair in Russia 2018.