Bahrain national football team arrive in Ukraine, begin mini-camp

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s senior men’s national football team arrived in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv yesterday and went straight to training in preparation for their friendly match against the Andriy Shevchenko-coached European giants on Sunday.

The tune-up is part of the Bahrainis’ preparations for their remaining three games in joint-qualifying for the FIFA World Cup 2022 and AFC Asian Cup 2023.

It will be the first international friendly for Bahrain in the coming week and a half. The nationals also play Malaysia at home on May 28. Bahrain are in Group C of joint-qualifying, along with Iraq, Iran, Cambodia and Hong Kong.

They are set to go against Cambodia on June 3, Iran on June 7 and then Hong Kong on June 15, all in the Kingdom. The Bahrainis are currently second in the group with nine points, having won two matches and drawn thrice.

Iraq are the leaders with 11 points after winning three games and drawing two other times. Iran are third with six points but have played just three matches so far and have two wins and two losses.

Hong Kong and Cambodia completed the Group C table with five points and one point, respectively. There are eight groups in all in this round of qualifiers, with five nations in each group.

At the end of this stage of qualification, 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.