Al-Emarat Al-Youm has learned that the technical staff of the national football team, led by Portuguese coach Paulo Bento, has formed an integrated technical team to follow the matches of the ADNOC Professional League, which will start today. The technical staff will monitor the players’ levels in preparation for selecting the new list of the team that will play its two upcoming matches against the Qatari and Iranian national teams on the fifth and tenth of next month in the first and second rounds of Group One in the final round qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The Whites will play their first match against Qatar outside their stadium, while in the second round they will host their Iranian counterpart at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain. It is worth noting that the Whites’ group includes, in addition to them, Qatar, Iran, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and North Korea.
The technical staff will monitor the players’ performance in the first and second rounds of the league, before the competition stops due to the national team’s participation in the World Cup qualifiers. The Whites will hold an internal training camp in Abu Dhabi at the end of this month as part of their preparations for the matches against Qatar and Iran.
During his monitoring of the players’ performance, Pinto will also focus on the elements he is counting on to make a difference in the national team’s ranks, which he has relied on in the past period, and which led the team to top its group with 16 points, and to win the qualification card with merit and worthiness to the final round of the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.
On the other hand, Al-Emarat Al-Youm learned that coach Pinto is also focusing during his follow-ups on the players of the national team who had been injured in the past period, in order to reassure them and their readiness, to know the possibility of choosing them in the new list or not. Among these players is Al-Wasl player Fabio De Lima, who had been injured in the past period, specifically before the national team’s matches against Nepal and Bahrain last June, in the last two rounds of the second round of the qualifiers, as the player underwent a successful surgery on the cartilage of his left knee, and then underwent a period of rehabilitation treatment before returning to the stadiums again.
The past period also witnessed the absence of Al Jazira and national team defender Khalifa Al Hammadi from the national team due to an injury to the adductor muscle and inflammation in the pelvic bone, noting that Al Hammadi is one of the main elements in the national team’s defense. Pinto is also expected to monitor the level of Sharjah player Khalid Al Dhanhani, who had suffered a second-degree tear in the “Tabbana” muscle, but he underwent treatment and returned to regularity with his team, Sharjah.
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