Iraq, the defending champion, will meet its Yemeni counterpart on Sunday (6:25 p.m. UAE time) at Jaber Al-Mubarak Stadium in the Sulaibikhat Club, which has a capacity of 15,000 spectators.
The Iraqi team is seeking to confirm its superiority and consistent level in the World Cup qualifiers, as it occupies second place in its group, three points behind South Korea.
Iraq prepared without playing any friendly match in its camp in Doha for eight days. It trained on Friday for the first time at the Kuwait Club Stadium, led by its Spanish coach, Jesus Casas, who began supervising it in 2022 and led it to the last title on its home soil in Basra.
Casas is counting on top scorer Ayman Hussein and Zidane Iqbal (Utrecht, Netherlands) and midfielder Ali Jassim (Como, Italy).
Casas said Saturday in a press conference: “Predictions are difficult in this group and I am working to give the young players an opportunity.”
In turn, the President of the Iraqi Federation, Adnan Darjal, said: “The Gulf Cup tournaments in which I played previously relied on a number of stars to make a difference, while the current tournaments depend on group play.”
On the other hand, the Yemeni team, led by Algerian coach Noureddine Ould Ali, is seeking to achieve its first victory in this tournament since its first participation in Kuwait in 2003, where it played 33 matches, drawing 6 times.
The Yemeni team entered an external camp in Malaysia, where it played a number of friendlies with Malaysian teams to compensate for the irregularity of the Yemeni league due to the security situation. He tied against Kuwait (1-1) in his camp in Doha and lost to Oman 0-1 in Muscat.
The Yemeni national team has a number of professionals in the Iraqi league, such as defender Hamza Al-Rimi (Al-Talaba), midfielders Jihad Abd al-Rab (Mosul) and Nasser Muhammadu (Zakho), while coach Ould Ali is counting on strikers Hamza Mahrous (Ahly Sanaa) and Abdel Aziz Masoum ( Saudi Arabia).
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