FOOTBALL – BAHRAIN’S senior men’s football national team have kicked off their final preparations for their concluding two matches in the third round of Asian qualifiers for the Fifa World Cup 2026.
The nationals are already out of the running for a direct berth in next year’s World Cup finals, with the top two spots in qualification Group C mathematically out of reach. But they are still fighting for third or fourth place in their division, which would see them advance to round four in continental qualifying and keep their World Cup dreams alive.
Gulf rivals Saudi Arabia and China stand in their way in their quest to march forward. The Bahrainis first host Saudi at the National Stadium in Riffa on Thursday this week in their penultimate fixture. They then wrap up their campaign away against the Chinese at Chongqing Longxing Football Stadium in China on Tuesday next week.
Bahrain are currently fifth amongst the six Group C teams with six points – tied with the Chinese, who are last. Undefeated Japan are top with 20 points and have already secured their spot in the Fifa World Cup 2026, followed by Australia with 13 points. Saudi are third with 10 points, while Indonesia are fourth on nine markers.
In other divisional clashes on Thursday, Australia host Japan at Optus Stadium in Perth, while Indonesia play China at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta.
Bahrain’s contest with Saudi is scheduled for a 7pm kick-off.
Entry for Bahraini fans in the general stands is free of charge, while VIP tickets are available at BD20 apiece. The Bahrain Football Association (BFA) launched the VIP ticket sales yesterday. They can be bought at the BFA headquarters until Thursday between 9am and 1pm and between 4pm and 6pm.
Category One tickets for Saudi fans are also available to purchase.
The Bahrainis have been gearing up for the qualifiers with local training over the past few days under the supervision of national team head coach Dragan Talajic.
The Croatian tactician has called up 26 players for the upcoming qualifiers. They are generally the same names who have played in the previous games.
The squad is led by top stars Mohammed Jassim Marhoon, Komail Al Aswad, Ali Madan, Mahdi Abdulajbbar, Mahdi Humaidan, Sayed Dhiya Saeed, Mohammed Al Rumaihi, Waleed Al Hayyam, Amine Benaddi, Abdulla Al Khalasi, and Ebrahim Luthfallah.
The rest of the roster features Sayed Mohammed Jaafar, Abdulkarim Al Fardan, Ahmed Al Sherooqi, Hussain Abdulkarim, Hussain Al Eker, Ali Hazza, Hamad Shamsan, Ali Haram, Jassim Al Shaikh, Ismaeel Abdullatif, Ahmed Bughammar, Sayed Mahdi Baqer, Vincent Emmanuel, Ebrahim Al Khattal, and Sayed Ahmed Alwadaie.
There are three groups in all in this stage of Asian qualifiers. Group A features Iran, Qatar, Uzbekistan, the UAE, Kyrgyzstan and North Korea; while Group B is composed of South Korea, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Palestine and Kuwait.
The top two finishers from each group punch their tickets to the World Cup finals. The third and fourth-placed squads will compete in a fourth round, where they will be divided into another two groups. There, the winners of each qualify for football’s global showpiece.
The two second-placers will then square off in a home-and-away phase, with the victors marching forward to compete in an inter-continental play-off for one final available World Cup berth.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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