FOOTBALL – BAHRAIN are determined to rise to the occasion despite facing “full pressure” in their final two matches in the third round of Asian qualification for the Fifa World Cup 2026.
This was stressed yesterday by the kingdom’s senior men’s football national team head coach Dragan Talajic, who was speaking ahead of their crunch clash against “big brother” Saudi Arabia tonight.
The game is their penultimate fixture in this stage of the continental qualifiers and it is scheduled for a 7pm kick-off at the National Stadium in Riffa.
The nationals head into the contest with their backs against the wall in their quest to achieve their World Cup dreams. They will need maximum points against Saudi – and then again when they play China in their concluding fixture next week – to have a chance of qualifying for the fourth round of qualifying.
They are currently fifth amongst the six teams in Group C, and will need to be either third or fourth to advance to the ensuing phase.
“This is a big game for both of us – our big brother is coming here also with full pressure like we are, and it will be a very difficult game,” Talajic told the media yesterday alongside star player Komail Al Aswad, national team media manager Mohammed Abdulghaffar, and Bahrain Football Association (BFA) media delegate Ahmed Mahdi.
“We respect Saudi Arabia too much and they have very good players and an excellent coach with a lot of experience. But we are in Bahrain, and we will see what will happen tomorrow.
“I believe in my boys and I trust in them too much. We know our target is to take six points, and inshaallah we will do our job and everything will be in our hands. With six points, we will qualify for the next round.
“I wish for Saudi to lose against us and win [their final game] against Australia so both of us can go through.”
Bahrain and Saudi played to a goalless draw in their first meeting of the qualifiers held in Jeddah in October of last year. The Gulf neighbours then also met in the group stages of the 26th Gulf Cup in Kuwait last December in a match Bahrain won 3-2.
Talajic said that they have moved on from that victory and that the result has no bearing on tonight’s encounter.
“The Gulf Cup is khalas,” said the Croatian. “We respect Saudi Arabia and we have already forgotten what happened there. Saudi have great players and it will be a different story tomorrow.
“But we are Bahraini, and every single story is different. At the end of this story, we will celebrate, inshallah.
“It will be a very difficult game, Saudi have full respect from us, and tomorrow on the field we will see. Tomorrow, for 90 minutes we are not friends, but after 90 minutes we are brothers.”
Talajic revealed that Bahrain will be without the services of star forward Mohammed Al Rumaihi tonight, but expressed confidence in the national team’s other players to fill his role.
Meanwhile, Al Aswad said at the same Press conference that the Bahrain players’ morale is high heading into tonight’s game and that they are fully focused on coming away with three points against Saudi.
Al Aswad stressed on the importance of the support from Bahrain’s fans in the contest, as it will give them an additional boost for when they take to the pitch, he said.
Following their meeting with the media yesterday, Talajic and Al Aswad joined the rest of the national team in a training session at the National Stadium.
Earlier in the day, the official pre-match technical meeting was held, with officials from Fifa, the Asian Football Confederation, the BFA, and representatives from both squads in attendance.
Bahrain are currently on six points in fifth place on the Group C standings – tied with the Chinese, who are last on goal difference. 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 points.
In other divisional games today, Australia host Japan at Optus Stadium in Perth, while Indonesia play China at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta.
There are three groups in all in this third round 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 Fifa World Cup 2026 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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