Bahrain gearing up for qualifiers

TDT | Manama                                                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s senior men’s national football team have kicked off their first training gathering under newly signed head coach Dragan Talajic.

The nationals are preparing for their upcoming joint-qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 2026 and the AFC Asian Cup 2027. They are set to play Nepal on March 21 and 26.

Both games will be taking place in the Kingdom, the Bahrain Football Association (BFA) confirmed yesterday.

The March 21 fixture was originally scheduled to take place in Kathmandu, but All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) issued a statement saying that their match venue’s conditions were unsatisfactory.

The BFA therefore proposed to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) that the game also be held in Bahrain, making for back-toback contests at home.

The ANFA had no objections to this, and the BFA yesterday received an official letter from the AFC agreeing to the Kingdom’s hosting of the first meeting.

It will be held at the National Stadium in Riffa with a 10pm kick-off. Bahrain are in Group H of the joint-qualifiers.

Their games with Nepal are their third and fourth of this stage. They had previously beaten Yemen 2-0 in their opening assignment and then lost to the UAE 0-2.

Following this month’s games, their final two outings will be against Yemen at home on June 6, and then away against the UAE on June 11.

Advance At the end of this phase, the winners and runners-up of each of the nine qualifying groups advance to the third round of FIFA World Cup 2026 qualification, and also book their direct tickets to the AFC Asian Cup 2027. Talajic has named a 30-player squad for the Nepal contests.

The list—his first since taking over as the national team’s chief tactician—features Sayed Mohammed Jaffar, Waleed Al Hayyam, Abdulla Al Khalasi, Hassan Al Karani, Ahmed Al Sherooqi, Hussain Abdulkarim, Abdulla Ali Afreeh, Hamad Shamsan, Hazza Ali, Sayed Mahdi Baqer, Ali Haram, Komail Al Aswad, Jassim Al Shaikh, Ahmed Bughammar, Ammar Mohammed, Mohammed Al Hardan, Mahdi Abduljabbar, Ismaeel Abdullatif, Mohammed Adel, Ahmed Nabeel, Ebrahim Al Khattal, Ahmed Abdulhameed, Moses Atede, Ebrahim Luthfallah, Mohammed Jassim Marhoon, Abdulla Yusuf, Ali Madan, Mahdi Humaidan, Abdulwahab Al Malood and Mohammed Al Bannai.

The national team’s first training sessions took place at the BFA headquarters pitches at Isa Sports City in Riffa.