National football team kick off local training

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s senior men’s national football team have kicked off their week-long training camp, being held locally under the supervision of Portuguese head coach Helio Sousa.

It is the first gathering of the Kingdom’s internationals in 2021.

The sessions continue until Saturday and they are part of the Bahrainis’ preparations for their international fixtures in the coming months.

These include their remaining joint-qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 2022 and AFC Asian Cup 2023, which are to take place in June.

Sousa has named 33 players from six clubs in the Nasser bin Hamad Bahrain Premier Football League and from the second division side Alkhaldiya.

Bahrain is in Group C of the current joint-qualifiers alongside Iraq, Iran, Hong Kong and Cambodia. Their three remaining games are against Cambodia, Iran and Hong Kong.

There are eight groups in all in this round of qualifiers, with five nations in each group.

In the end, the eight group winners and the four best runners-up advance to the third round of World Cup qualifying, and also secure 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.