FOOTBALL – BAHRAIN’S junior football national team are stepping up their final preparations for their upcoming qualifying competition for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U20 Asian Cup 2025.
The under-20 nationals are set to play in qualification Group B, to be hosted by Chinese Taipei. Games are scheduled to kick off on Saturday and continue until September 29.
Theirs is one of 10 groups in the qualifiers, featuring 45 teams in all, with each pool being held at a centralised location.
At the end of a single round-robin, the 10 group winners and five best second-placed teams will book their tickets alongside hosts China to the AFC U20 Asian Cup 2025, to be held February 6 to 23 next year.
The other teams in Group B are Uzbekistan, Cambodia, Nepal, and home side Chinese Taipei.
The Bahrainis have been preparing for the qualifiers with a training camp which kicked off at the beginning of this month in Bangkok, Thailand. There, they have so far played a pair of friendly games and are scheduled for another before flying to Taipei City tomorrow.
Bahrain head coach Ali Sanqour has a squad of 25 players gearing up for their U20 Asian Cup bid.
The kingdom’s up-and-coming young talents include Ali Sanad, Yousef Muajeb, Abdulelah Hisham, Salman Al Saber, Mohammed Alkhalaki, Ashraf Mubarak, Ali Al Anzi, Essa Al Khazami, Issa Al Issa, Abdulla Jamal, Mahdi Abdulla, Ali Younis, Rashed Murjan, Hamad Al Balooshi, Mohammed Al Shaikhani, Ammar Al Basri, Mohammed Ahmed, Khaled Al Khalaf, Sayed Karar Sharaf, Jamal Abdulhakim, Yahya Al Asfoor, Saud Mohsen, Sami Awdi, Ahmed Al Bari, and Ali Ahmed.
The Bahrainis are scheduled to open their qualifying campaign against the hosts on Saturday in a match that will be played at Fu Jen University in New Taipei at 2pm. They will next face off with Cambodia on September 25 at the same venue and time, before taking on Nepal on September 27 at the same pitch at 10am.
Bahrain then wrap up their campaign on the qualifiers’ last day against Uzbekistan, also at Fu Jen University and at 10am. All times are Bahrain.
Amongst the other pools, Group A is to be held in Vietnam, Group C in Kuwait, Group D in Saudi Arabia, Group E in Tajikistan, Group F in Indonesia, Group G in Laos, Group H in Thailand, Group I in Kyrgyzstan, and Group J in Qatar.
The top four teams in the AFC U20 Asian Cup 2025 will qualify for the Fifa U20 World Cup 2025 in Chile.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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