FOOTBALL – BAHRAIN face off with Gulf neighbours the UAE tonight in a friendly match in Dubai.
The game is scheduled for a 7.30pm kick-off, Bahrain time, and it will be played at Dubai’s Zabeel Stadium.
According to the Bahrain Football Association, the tune-up is considered a ‘non-international’ match, at the request of the UAE Football Association (UAEFA).
The game will consist of two halves, with open substitutions for each team.
It will be the second friendly in a week’s time for the kingdom’s senior men’s football national team. They previously faced off with their counterparts from Qatar in a closed contest held in Doha, which ended in a 2-2 stalemate.
Bahrain head coach Dragan Talajic from Croatia has 27 players available for the friendly. They include Mohammed Jassim Marhoon, Mohammed Al Rumaihi, Amine Benaddi, Waleed Al Hayyam, Abdulla Al Khalasi, Ahmed Bughammar, Hamad Shamsan, Sayed Mahdi Baqer, Sayed Dhiya Saeed, Hussain Al Eker, Vincent Emmanuel, Hazza Ali, Hussain Jameel, Mahdi Humaidan, Ali Madan, Ahmed Al Sherooqi, Omar Saber, Jassim Al Shaikh, Komail Al Aswad, Mahdi Abduljabbar, Ebrahim Al Khattal, Hussain Zuhair, and Sayed Mahdi Sharaf, along with goalkeepers Ebrahim Luthfallah, Mohammed Al Gharably, Abdulkarim Al Fardan, and Yousef Habib.
They held their final training session last night at the UAEFA pitches in Dubai. The session was limited to tactical exercises.
UAE head coach Cosmin Olaroiu from Romania has called up a 28-player squad for their ongoing training gathering, which includes tonight’s friendly.
The Emirati roster features Caio Canedo, Alvaro de Oliveira, Bruno de Oliveira, Mohamed Awadalla, Caio Lucas, Fabio de Lima, Yahya Al Ghassani, Abdulla Ramadan, Nicolas Gimenez, Mohammed Abdulbasit, Gaston Suarez, Mackenzie Hunt, Harib Abdullah, Luan Pereira, Ali Saleh, Marcus Meloni, Zayed Sultan, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Ruben Filipe Amaral, Ala Zhir, Lucas Pimenta, Kouame Kouadio, Sasa Ivkovic, and Erik de Menezes, along with goalkeepers Khalid Eissa, Ali Khaseif, Hamad Almeqebaali, and Fahad Aldhanhani.
Bahrain and the UAE are playing tonight’s friendly as part of Fifa’s international break. They are gearing up for their upcoming competitions, which include the Fifa Arab Cup 2025 this December, to be held in the Qatari capital.
Aside from this year’s Fifa Arab Cup, the UAE are also gearing up for round four of AFC qualifying for the Fifa World Cup 2026, which begins in October.
Prior to competing in the Fifa Arab Cup 2025, Bahrain 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 the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, and either Kuwait or Mauritania.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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