Bahrain set up major friendlies

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain have lined up four major international friendly matches in September and October as they continue to gear up for their continental qualification campaign for the 2026 FIFA World Cup this November.

The Kingdom’s senior men’s national football team will play two exhibition games each month.

They will first take on their counterparts from Kuwait on 7 September and then go up against Turkmenistan on 12 September, both in Dubai as part of their overseas training camp.

The Bahrainis will then play two more games in the Kingdom in October, first against the Philippines men’s national team on 12 October and then against Kyrgyzstan on 17 October.

These fixtures were confirmed yesterday by the Bahrain Football Association (BFA).

National team director Rashid Al Zayani said that the games are part of the programme of Bahrain’s new head coach Juan Antonio Pizzi.

The nationals have already begun their first training gathering under Pizzi with daily sessions locally.

They are scheduled to depart today for Serbia for an overseas camp under Pizzi’s supervision until 2 September.

From there, the nationals will fly to Dubai and continue their training programme until 13 September.

During this period, the Bahrainis will play their friendlies against Kuwait and Turkmenistan. Gearing up Aside from World Cup qualification, Bahrain are also gearing up for the next edition of the AFC Asian Cup, to be held in Doha in January of next year.

These will be the national team’s first official games under Pizzi, under whom the BFA is hopeful that the Kingdom qualifies for its first-ever World Cup.

There are five rounds in the World Cup qualification format for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), which will have eight teams book their tickets to the global showcase, plus potentially another following an inter-confederation play-off. Bahrain will play directly in the second round of qualifiers starting November.

They have been drawn in a competitive Group H along with the UAE, and either Yemen or Sri Lanka and Nepal or Laos.

The nationals kick off their campaign on 16 November against either Yemen or Sri Lanka, and then play the UAE on 21 November.

Following those matches, the qualifiers resume in March of next year.

There are 36 nations in all in this phase, divided into nine groups of four.

The teams will play against each other on a home-and-away basis. The nine group winners and group runners-up advance to the third round.

In addition to this, they will also automatically qualify for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup.