FOOTBALL – BAHRAIN’S senior men’s football national team have stepped up their local training gathering in preparation for the upcoming Fifa Arab Cup 2025.
The Bahrainis have been practising every evening this week at the Bahrain Football Association (BFA) pitches in Riffa, under the supervision of national team head coach Dragan Talajic.
The Croatian tactician and his coaching staff have been conducting technical and tactical drills with the national team’s players, in addition to holding scrimmages in small sections of the field.
BFA vice-president Shaikh Khalifa bin Ali Al Khalifa has visited the national team during their training in support of the squad.
As part of the nationals’ preparations for the Fifa Arab Cup 2025, they will be playing a friendly match against Somalia on Monday night. The tune-up contest will be held in the kingdom and it is so far the only game scheduled for Bahrain ahead of the regional tournament, which is set to take place in Doha, Qatar.
Talajic has a roster of 27 players currently in training. The team includes Waleed Al Hayyam, Amine Benaddi, Abdulla Al Khalasi, Mohammed Jassim Marhoon, Mahdi Humaidan, Ali Madan, Sayed Dhiya Saeed, Komail Al Aswad, Mahdi Abduljabbar, Hussain Al Eker, Ahmed Bughammar, Vincent Emmanuel, Sayed Mahdi Sharaf, Sayed Al Mosawi, Hazza Ali, Mohammed Adel, Sayed Redha Isa, Jassim Al Shaikh, Omar Saber, Hussain Abdulkarim, Sayed Hashem Issa, Mohammed Al Rumaihi, Ebrahim Al Khattal, Abdulla Al Hashash, and goalkeepers Ebrahim Luthfallah, Mohammed Algharabli, and Omar Salem.
Prior to the Fifa Arab Cup, Bahrain must first play in a qualifying match to secure their berth in the tournament’s group stage. The Bahrainis will be taking on their counterparts from Djibouti on November 26 in a one-off qualification contest at Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in the Qatari capital. The game is scheduled for a 4pm kick-off, Bahrain time.
Somalia will also be using Monday’s friendly to gear up for their Fifa Arab Cup qualifier. They will be facing off with Oman, also on November 26, at Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium in the Qatari capital.
Should the Bahrainis book their seat in the Fifa Arab Cup, they will be in Group D where they will join defending champions 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.
This year’s Fifa Arab Cup will be its 11th edition and second under its current format organised by Fifa. The last edition in 2021, also held in Doha, saw the Algerians claim the title after defeating Tunisia 2-0 after extra-time. Bahrain bowed out in the group stage, after finishing their Group A campaign with just one point from three matches – having drawn with Iraq 0-0 but also losing to Qatar 0-1 and Oman 0-3.
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