FOOTBALL – Bahrain's senior men’s football national team will play an international friendly match against their counterparts from Qatar early next month, the Bahrain Football Association (BFA) announced yesterday.
The kingdom’s representatives will be playing the tune-up in Doha on September 3. The contest will take place at Al Thumama Stadium with a 6.15pm kick-off, Bahrain time.
The game is part of the Bahrainis’ preparations for their upcoming competitions, headlined by the Fifa Arab Cup 2025 this December, also to be held in the Qatari capital.
The Qataris, currently ranked 53rd in the world and fifth in the continent, are contesting the tournament as hosts and will also be playing in fourth round of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualifiers for the Fifa World Cup 2026, which begin in October.
Meanwhile, a national team official confirmed yesterday with the GDN that another friendly next month against the UAE is being arranged, although has yet to be confirmed.
The game is being planned for September 8 in Dubai.
The Emiratis, ranked 65th in the world and 10th continentally, are also set to play in the Fifa Arab Cup 2025 and Fifa World Cup 2026 AFC qualifiers’ fourth phase.
The kingdom’s senior men’s squad, 89th on the Fifa World Ranking and 12th in Asia, conducted last month an overseas summer training camp in Maribor, Slovenia, under the supervision of head coach Dragan Talajic.
During this period, they played three friendly games, winning twice, including a 2-1 triumph against Slovenian First League outfit NK Primorje Ajdovscina and a 3-1 victory against Slovenian club NK Sobec Lesce.
Their other game was a 1-3 loss against Croatian First League team NK Istra 1961.
Talajic worked with a relatively new-look 28-player national team in Maribor, with the roster missing a number of Bahrain’s veteran stars, including Ismaeel Abdullatif, Ali Haram, Mohammed Al Rumaihi, and Sayed Mohammed Jaafar – the kingdom’s most-capped player who has since retired from international play.
Star midfielder Mohammed Jassim Marhoon was also not present due to club commitments, as was talented youngster Sayed Ahmed Al Wadaie, who was with Bahrain’s under-23 Olympic team.
A number of newer call-ups were also made by Talajic, including Abdulla Al Subaie, Hussain Jameel, Omar Saber, Ahmed Dhiya, Ahmed Abdulhameed, and goalkeepers Yousef Habib and Mohammed Al Gharabli. Some of them had been selected for the national team in the past, but all have yet to play an official game for Bahrain.
Prior to competing in the Fifa Arab Cup 2025, the nationals must first play a qualifying game in November against Djibouti to secure their spot in the tournament proper’s group stage. The date and venue of the single-game contest has yet to be announced.
Should the Bahrainis win, they will be in Group D where they will join Algeria, Iraq, and either Lebanon or Sudan. Group A features competition hosts Qatar, Tunisia, Syria or South Sudan, and Palestine or Libya; Group B is composed of Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Oman or Somalia, and Yemen or Comoros; and Group C includes Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, and either Kuwait or Mauritania.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))