Bahrain step up qualifiers preparations

TDT | Manama                                                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s senior men’s national football team have stepped up their final preparations for their upcoming joint-qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup 2027.

The Bahrainis are set to face their counterparts from Nepal in back-to-back games at home—first on Thursday later this week and then again on 26 March.

Both contests are set to take place at the National Stadium in Riffa with 10pm kick-offs, and they will be the nationals’ third and fourth in Group H of qualification.

Bahrain are set to begin an internal camp today under the supervision of head coach Dragan Talajic, who will be at the helm of the Kingdom’s squad in his first two matches since taking charge.

The Nepalese national team have also already arrived on the island with a 23-player squad.

Bahrain had previously beaten Yemen 2-0 in their opening assignment of the joint-qualifiers but then lost to the UAE 0-2 in their next fixture.

Following their upcoming ties with Nepal, their final two outings will be against Yemen at home on June 6, and then away against the UAE on June 11.

Scheduled

This Thursday’s contest was originally scheduled to take place in Kathmandu, but the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) issued a statement saying that their match venue’s conditions were unsatisfactory.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) then approved a proposal from the Bahrain Football Association for the game to be held here.

Talajic has named a 30-player squad for the Nepal contests.

The list 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 Nepal roster includes goalkeepers Kiran Kumar Limbu, Abhishek Baral, and Bishal Sunar; defenders Abhishek Limbu, Ajay Chaudhary, Ananta Tamang, Chhiring Lama, Sanish Shrestha, Saubhagya Rai, and Sumit Shrestha; midfielders Bharat Khawas, Bishal Basnet, Laken Limbu, Mani Kumar Lama, Manish Dangi, Rohan Karki, and Utsab Rai; and forwards Anjan Bista, Dinesh Henjan, Hishub Thapaliya, Samir Tamang, Sanjeeb Bista, and Gillespye Jung Karki.

At the end of this stage of the joint-qualifiers, the winners and runners-up of each of the nine groups advance to the third round of FIFA World Cup 2026 qualification, and also book their direct tickets to the AFC Asian Cup 2027.