Bahrain in UAE for friendlies

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s senior men’s national football team wrapped up their overseas training camp in Serbia and yesterday arrived in the UAE, where they will play two friendly matches in the coming two weeks.

The nationals are gearing up for their upcoming continental qualifying campaign for the FIFA World Cup 2026, starting this November, as well as the next edition of the AFC Asian Cup, to be held in Doha in January of next year.

The Bahrainis are conducting their preparations under the supervision of head coach Juan Antonio Pizzi from Argentina.

He had a 26-player squad in Belgrade, with two of those players set to join the Kingdom’s under-23 Olympic team for their qualifying competition for the AFC U23 Asian Cup.

They include Abdulla Al Khalasi and Mubarak Mohammed.

The remainder of the team in Dubai are Mahdi Humaidan, Sayed Dhiya Saeed, Ahmed Bughammar, Mohammed Adel, Mohammed Al Hardan, Mahdi Abduljabbar, Hamza Al Juban, Amine Hasan, Hussain Jameel, Sayed Mohammed Jaafar, Sayed Redha Issa, Abdulkarim Al Fardan, Ahmed Al Sherooqi, 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 and Ahmed Moussa.

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

Bahrain will first play Kuwait on 7 September and then against Turkmenistan on 12 September. Following these two games, the nationals are also scheduled to play two exhibition games in October, both at home.

They will lock horns with the Philippines men’s national team on 12 October and then against Kyrgyzstan on 17 October.

Aside from World Cup qualification, Bahrain are also gearing up for 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 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.

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.