BAHRAIN head coach Miroslav Soukup has named a squad of 26 players ahead of their upcoming international matches in the coming weeks.
The nationals are scheduled to play a friendly against Palestine on Thursday. It will serve as a tune-up to their final qualifier for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup against Turkmenistan on March 27.
The players called on include Ibrahim Al Obaidly, Waleed Al Hayyam, Abdulla Abdo, Abdulla Yousif, Jamal Rashid, Isa Moosa (all Muharraq); Abbas Haram, Ahmed Moosa, Ali Habib (all Manama); Ahmed Bu Ghammar, Abdulwahab Al Malood (both Al Hidd); Mohammed Sahwan, Ahmed Abdulla, Ali Madan, Sayyed Shubbar Alawi, Sayed Mahdi Baqer (all Al Najma); Mahmood Mukhtar, Hussain Jameel, Ali Isa (all Al Shabab); Kumail Al Aswad (Riffa), Dheya Saeed (Al Nasr of Kuwait), Mahdi Abdul-Jabbar (Al Ettihad), Abdulkarim Fardan, Sayed Redha Isa (both Al Malkiya), and Jassim Al Shaikh and Ahmed Juma (Al Ahli).
The Bahrainis are scheduled to get together for training under Soukup starting from tonight at BFA premises in Riffa.
It will be the first time that senior nationals will be back in action since competing in the 23rd Gulf Cup in early January.
First
Bahrain are in joint-first place in Asian Cup qualifying’s Group ‘E’ after amassing 10 points from their first five matches, where they won thrice, drew once and lost the other. Turkmenistan are also on 10 points but Bahrain have a greater goal difference of +8 to +3.
There are 24 teams in all in the third and final round of Asian Cup qualifying.
They have been divided into six groups of four each. Only the top two teams from each group qualify for the competition proper.
Some nations are already in the competition. They include tournament hosts the UAE, Qatar, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Uzbekistan, Iran, Syria, Iraq, China, Palestine, Oman, India, Lebanon, Turkmenistan, Jordan, Vietnam and Bahrain.
Next year’s AFC Asian Cup will be the 17th edition of the prestigious annual championship of Asia, organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It will be held in the UAE. It will be the second time that the UAE hosts the tournament after the 1996 finals.
Bahrain will be competing in their sixth AFC Asian Cup next year. The Bahrainis last competed in the 2015 edition. Their best-ever finish was fourth overall in 2004.