The national team will open its campaign in the 26th Gulf Football Cup “Gulf 26”, which begins today in Kuwait, by playing a strong confrontation against the Qatar national team at 11 pm today, at Jaber Al-Mubarak Stadium in Kuwait, within the first round of the first group matches that It also includes both Kuwait and Oman, as “Al-Abyad” hopes to recall memories of the last confrontation he had against “Al-Annabi” last month.
The UAE national team achieved a major victory over its Qatari counterpart with five unanswered goals last month, in the sixth round of the third stage of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, after the team’s star Fabio Lima played a wonderful symphony, scoring four goals, while Yahya Al-Ghassani added the fifth goal.
“Al-Abyad” enters the tournament with high morale after the team’s results and performances improved in the recent period, with its victory over Kyrgyzstan with three unanswered goals, then Qatar with a clean five, in the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup finals. The national team seeks to confirm its superiority over “Al-Anabi”, as it was It also beat them in the first round of the World Cup qualifiers by three goals to one in Doha, while the last edition, “Gulf 25” in Iraq, saw the two teams tied with one goal each. Both of them are in the group stage.
The Portuguese national team coach, Paulo Bento, is competing in the Gulf Cup for the first time, as he hopes to record his name in the history of Emirates football, and add the third Gulf title to the “White” tally, and join both the late French coach Bruno Mesto and the national coach Mehdi Ali, They led the UAE national team to win the 18th and 21st Gulf Cups in the UAE and Bahrain in 2007 and 2013.
The national team is participating for the 25th time in the tournament, as it did not participate in the first edition of the tournament, which was held with the participation of only four teams, before the Gulf teams participated. Throughout the history of its participation, the UAE team was crowned twice with the title in 2007 and 2013, and also won second place four times in the other editions. 1986, 1988, 1994, 2017, and also won third place four times over the years. 1972, 1982, 1998, 2014.
On the other hand, the Qatar national team is participating in the match and the tournament in general with the aim of adjusting its course after its results declined in the recent period, so the local football association decided to dismiss coach Marquez Lopez, and appoint his assistant and compatriot Luis Garcia as his temporary successor, where he will lead the team in the Gulf Cup, before determining his fate by continuing with « Annabi” in the World Cup qualifiers, or hiring a new coach.
The Qatari team is participating in the Gulf Championship for the 25th time as well, as it won the title three times, the first time in 1992 in Gulf 11, then 2004 in Gulf 17, then 2014 in Gulf 22, while it achieved second place four times in 1984, 1990, 1996 and 2002. The Qatari team played 114 matches, the second most participating team in the tournament, equally with The Emirati team, one match behind the Kuwaiti team.
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