Bahrain to focus on qualifiers

Bahrain head coach Helio Sousa says that the national team must now shift their focus to their joint-qualifying campaign for the Fifa World Cup 2022 and the AFC Asian Cup 2023 following their historic victory in the 24th Arabian Gulf Cup. Sousa and his squad were given a hero’s welcome yesterday as they returned from Doha where they won the prestigious regional competition for the first time.

The Portuguese tactician said that he was delighted with their success and the way his players responded to the challenge in the tournament, but they must now look forward to achieving other goals. “The players were incredible, they were fantastic,” Sousa said of their showing in the Gulf Cup. “Don’t forget we are working with semi-professional players that are with great compromise with what we are proposing every time.

“They are trying to give the maximum from their quality and their capacity, and every time they try to do it better. “In this way we can conquer the things we already conquered in the last five months, but there is still much more to conquer. “The Gulf Cup was good and fantastic. It is great moment to grow up, to keep going forward, but in March we have another challenge – a big challenge to get the three points from our next game in the qualifiers and to keep going our way to try and arrive to what we have in front of us.”

Bahrain have three games remaining in Group C of the joint World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers. They resume their campaign on March 26 at home against Cambodia. They then play Iran in Tehran on June 4, before closing out this stage against Hong Kong at home on June 9. Iraq are atop the group with 11 points. They have a two-point lead over Bahrain. Iran are third with six points and have a game in hand, while Hong Kong were fourth on five points and Cambodia fifth with one.

In this phase of the joint-qualifiers, there are eight groups in all, with five nations in each group. Teams play home and away matches. At the end, the eight group winners and the four best runners-up advance to the third round of World Cup qualifying, and also book their berths in the Asian Cup. The next best 24 teams will compete in a separate competition for the remaining 12 slots in the Asian Cup.

“This is a unique moment for us,” Sousa said. “The players are gaining fantastic mentality. We will be there fighting to win in every game.”