THE Bahrain Olympic team yesterday stepped up preparations ahead of the U-23 AFC Under-23 Football Championship which begins on Wednesday in Bangkok.
The top three teams of this tournament will qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. As Japan have already qualified as hosts and if they make it to the semi-finals, the remaining three teams are guaranteed qualification.
A total of 16 teams are in the fray and they are divided into four groups. Bahrain are in Group ‘A’ with hosts Thailand, Iraq and Australia.
Group ‘B’ consists of Qatar, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Syria while Group ‘C’ is made up of Uzbekistan, South Korea, China and Iran and Group ‘D’ has Vietnam, North Korea, Jordan and the UAE.
The top two from each group qualify for the quarter-finals to be held on January 18 and 19 while the semi-finals are slated for January 22. The third place match will be held on January 25 and the final on January 26.
Bahrain, who have qualified for this event for the first time since its inception in 2013, take on Thailand in the first match on Wednesday, clash with Iraq on January 11 and meet Australia on January 14.
Bahrain beat Vietnam 2-1 in a friendly match on Friday. Ahmed Saleh and Abdulrahman Al Ahmadi scored the goals.
The Bahrain delegation is headed by Olympic team director Shaikh Ahmed bin Isa Al Khalifa.
The Bahrain team: The Bahrain team: Abdul Rahman Al Ahmadi; Faisal Ebrahim; Hamza Al Jubn; Hassan Al Karrani; Ahmed Al Shoroogi; Hussain Jameel; Ahmed Saleh; Mohammed Al Hardan; Abdul Aziz Khalid; Adnan Fawwaz; Mohammed Marhoon; Hamad Shamsan; Sayed Hashim Isa; Hassan Madan; Ahmed Fadhil; Abbas Al Asfour; Sayed Mohammed Amin; Jassim Khlaif; Yousuf Habib; Ahmed Bo Ghammar; Anwar Ahmed; Salem Adel; Ammar Mohammed Coach: Samir Chamman.