Bahrain’s Asian Cup group ‘balanced’, says Al Amrei

TDT | Manama                                                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com     

Bahrain’ group in next year’s AFC Asian Cup is wide open, and any one of its four teams are capable of advancing past the tournament’s preliminary stage.

This is according to the Kingdom’s senior men’s national team assistant coach Ahmed Isa Al Amrei, who attended the official draw last week in Doha.

The Bahrainis are set to take on their counterparts from South Korea, Malaysia and Jordan, and, just like the other teams, have a realistic shot at making it through to the knockout phase.

Only the top two sides from each of the six preliminary round groups, plus the four best third-placed squads, will advance.

“I think that our group is balanced and the chances are open for all the teams to qualify for the second round,” Al Amrei said.

He added that the national team will begin gearing up right away for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) showcase, scheduled to kick off on January 12, with the gold medal game set for February 10.

“Our preparations start now after the draw,” Al Amrei said.

“We will prepare to play friendly matches at the coming international windows, and we will have short-term targets like the FIFA World Cup qualifiers [kicking off this November], which we are also waiting for its draw.

“I think the AFC was successful in choosing the dates for this tournament, as they were looking for the technical conditions of the teams, who will at that time be finished with the preliminary stage of the World Cup qualifiers, and they will be ready with all their stars.”

Al Amrei broke down what he expects from each of their group stage opponents.

The Bahrainis play South Korea in their opening fixture on January 15, before facing Malaysia on the 20th and then Jordan on the 25th. “We respect the Korea team, who are a big team and who participated recently in the World Cup,” Al Amrei said. “I expected to face an Arab team.

We got Jordan, who are a big and good team, and they have an experienced coach and good players who play overseas.

We have played several times against Jordan and we know them well, and they also know us well.

“We played against Malaysia in the Asian Cup qualifiers, but we didn’t play South Korea in a while.

Our last match with them was the Round of 16 in the Asian Cup 2019. “All chances are open for all the teams, and I think the format of the competitions—with the first two teams from each group, in addition to the best four third-placed teams qualifying—gives a chance for everyone.

“We hope that we in the Bahrain national team can achieve our goals and advance in the competition.” Group A in the first phase features tournament hosts and defending champions Qatar along with two-time runners-up China, Tajikistan and Lebanon.

Group B will see 2015 champions Australia, Uzbekistan, Syria and India contesting for the knockout stage spots.

Three-time winners Iran, 1996 runners-up the UAE, Hong Kong and Palestine are in Group C; while record fourtime winners Japan, Indonesia, 2007 champions Iraq and Vietnam were drawn in Group D. Group F will have three-time winners Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Kyrgyzstan and Oman.

Next year’s event will be the seventh time Bahrain will be playing in the AFC Asian Cup, after also competing in 1988 as well as in the tournament’s last five editions in 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019.