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

Torres sparked euphoria in the Rommel Fernández Stadium with 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 game with a ticket in hand to lead Qatar in the octagonal final, had a chance to level the score, but American referee Jair Marrufo used the video replay to cancel a goal from Cyle Larin in the 79th. .minutes for an advanced position.

Panama, which came to this last game without any chance of going even to the World Cup qualifiers, finished in fifth position with 21 units. 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 finishing the tie in first place with 28 points, the same amount as Mexico, but with a better goal difference to the Habs.

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

The goal action came about when Cecilio Waterman launched Rodríguez down the left wing, from where he took the cross that ended high on the goal with a superb shot from halfway up.

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

Defensively, goalkeeper Luis Ricardo Mejía avoided the equalizer in the 60th minute, when he showed his good reflexes to deflect a point-blank shot from Jonathan David into one of Canada’s few open 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, facing 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 every ball. We never gave up and we are on our way to Qatar, like the first in CONCACAF. I will sleep well tonight.”

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