FOOTBALL – BAHRAIN’S senior men’s football national team will play a pair of international friendly matches next month against a pair of African football juggernauts.
The Bahrainis will first take on their Moroccan counterparts in a tune-up scheduled for October 9 in Rabat. They will then face off with the Egyptian national team three days later on October 12, also to be held in Morocco’s capital city.
The two fixtures were announced yesterday by the Bahrain Football Association (BFA), who said in a statement that they had received a letter from the Royal Moroccan Football Federation confirming the two games.
The BFA noted that the kingdom’s nationals were originally set to play two friendlies at home against Egypt next month, but this was prior to their receiving the invitation from Morocco to play their senior men’s side.
The friendlies are part of Bahrain’s preparations for their upcoming competitions, which include the Fifa Arab Cup 2025 this December, to be held in Doha, Qatar.
Both Morocco and Egypt are also set to compete in the regional Fifa tournament. They are both powerhouses in the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and will give Bahrain a good test in their friendlies.
The Moroccans are currently 11th on the Fifa World Ranking and first in the CAF, while Egypt are 35th in the world and third in Africa.
The latest edition of the classification of senior men’s national teams was released yesterday by Fifa.
Bahrain climbed one spot to 88th in the world and are 12th in the Asian Football Confederation. The nationals, coached by Croatian tactician Dragan Talajic, are on 1,268.73 ranking points.
The Bahrainis’ two friendlies next month will be part of Fifa’s next international break. They follow the other two exhibition games Bahrain played at the beginning of this month against Gulf rivals Qatar in Doha and the UAE in Dubai.
The nationals drew 2-2 against the Qataris, but then suffered a narrow 0-1 defeat against the Emiratis.
The friendlies were Bahrain’s first official games since their disappointing exit from the third round of Asian qualifiers for the Fifa World Cup 2026 last June.
They had also played a number of exhibition matches against European clubs during their overseas training camp in Maribor, Slovenia, in July.
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. 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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