FOOTBALL – Four players did not travel yesterday with Bahrain’s senior men’s football national team to Morocco, where they will be playing two international friendly matches in the coming week.
Komail Al Aswad, Waleed Al Hayyam, Hamad Shamsan, and Mohammed Al Hardan all remained in the kingdom to nurse various injuries, a team official told the GDN last night.
Bahrain head coach Dragan Talajic therefore has 23 players on his roster for their two upcoming tune-up games – first of which is against Morocco on Thursday and then against Egypt on Sunday.
Both contests are to be played in Rabat.
Bahrain’s players in this gathering, being held as part of Fifa’s international break, are Mohammed Jassim Marhoon, Ali Madan, Mahdi Abduljabbar, Sayed Dhiya Saeed, Mohammed Al Rumaihi, Mahdi Humaidan, Amine Benaddi, Abdulla Al Khalasi, Ahmed Bughammar, Sayed Mahmood Al Mosawi, Hazza Ali, Hussain Jameel, Vincent Emmanuel, Sayed Mahdi Sharaf, Jassim Al Shaikh, Omar Saber, Hussain Abdulkarim, Abdulla Al Subaie, Ahmed Dheyaa, and Ebrahim Al Khattal, along with goalkeepers Ebrahim Luthfallah, Yousef Habib, and Mohammed Elgharably.
Heading the kingdom’s delegation in Morocco is Bahrain Football Association board member Nayef Al Majed.
Bahrain are gearing up for their upcoming competitions, headlined by the Fifa Arab Cup 2025 this November and December in Doha, Qatar.
Upon their arrival in Morocco yesterday, the nationals went right to work with a training session at the external fields of Rabat’s Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium.
The training was limited to recovery exercises and light ball drills.
Both Morocco and Egypt are also set to take part in the major regional competition.
Prior to the tournament, Bahrain must first play a qualifying game against Djibouti on November 26 at Doha’s Jassim bin Hamad Stadium.
It is scheduled for a 4pm kick-off, Bahrain time, with the winners securing their spot in the group stage, which kicks off on December 1.
Should the Bahrainis book their seat, they will be in Group D where they will join Algeria, Iraq, and either Lebanon or Sudan, who also play in a qualifier on November 26.
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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