Bahrainis to face UAE club Al Dhafra in friendly

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s senior men’s national football team take on UAE club Al Dhafra today in a friendly match being held as part of their ongoing overseas training camp in Serbia.

It will be the second tune-up game for the nationals in Belgrade. They previously played Serbian professional outfit FK Radnički Sremska Mitrovica and lost 2-3.

The nationals are in their camp until 2 September, as they gear up for their upcoming continental qualifying campaign for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, starting this November.

Bahrain are also preparing for the next edition of the AFC Asian Cup, to be held in Doha in January of next year.

From there, they will fly directly to Dubai where they will play two international friendlies, first against Kuwait on 7 September and then with Turkmenistan on 12 September.

The Bahrainis will play another two exhibition games in October, both at home.

These will be with the Philippines men’s national team on 12 October and then against Kyrgyzstan on 17 October. Bahrain have a 26-player squad in their camp, which is being supervised by head coach Juan Antonio Pizzi.

The roster includes Hamza Al Juban, Amine Hasan, Abdulla Al Khalasi, Hussain Jameel, Sayed Mohammed Jaafar, Sayed Redha Isa, Abdulkarim Al Fardan, Ahmed Al Sherooqi, Mubarak Mohammed, Waleed Al Hayyam, Ahmed Nabeel, Ali Hassan Saeed, Komail Alaswad, Ali Haram, Jassim Al Shaikh, Talal Al Sherooqi, Abbas Al Asfoor, Ebrahim Luthfallah, Ebrahim Al Khattal, Ahmed Moussa, Mahdi Humaidan, Sayed Dhiya Saeed, Ahmed Bughammar, Mohammed Adel, Mohammed Al Hardan and Mahdi Abduljabbar.

The Kingdom’s three overseas-based professionals, namely Ali Madan, Mohammed Marhoon and Abdulla Yusuf, are scheduled to join the nationals in the Emirates.

There are five rounds in the World Cup qualification format for the 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 beginning in 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.