The national team will face a fateful confrontation in the Arabian Gulf Football Cup, when it meets the Oman national team in the third round of the first group matches, today at 6:30 pm at Jaber Al-Mubarak Stadium, as “Al-Abyad” has no alternative but to achieve victory to qualify for the final. Semi-finals.
The team enters the match with one point in its balance, which it obtained by drawing with Qatar in the first round 1-1, then losing to Kuwait 1-2. As for “Al-Ahmar”, it has four points in its balance from a draw with Kuwait 1-1, then its victory over Qatar 2- 1.
The team has more than one chance to qualify through victory, most notably winning by a difference of more than one goal, which gives it a ticket to advance to the “golden square” directly, or winning by a goal difference, and awaiting the result of the second match in the same group that brings together Kuwait with Qatar, as the end of the match A draw, a victory for “Blue” or a victory for Qatar by more than one goal means that the national team qualifies in second place, while in the event that “Al-Anabi” wins by a goal difference, this means that the four teams are equal in the same number of points and goal difference, and the “game” becomes “Al-Nafid” is the deciding factor in determining the two teams that qualify for the semi-finals, and if there is still a tie between them, a lottery will be held to determine the final standings of the group and the two teams that will occupy first and second places.
Portuguese coach Paulo Bento is scheduled to make changes to the team’s lineup, especially at the level of the defense line, after the absence of player Kwame was confirmed due to him receiving a red card against Kuwait.
The Portuguese coach has good options in the defense line to participate against Oman, as Mackenzie Hunt and Mohammed Al-Attas stand out as the most prominent candidates to start in the starting lineup for the match.
The team hopes to regain the memory of victories in the Gulf Cup, as the last victory it achieved was in the 2019 edition of “Gulf 24” in Bahrain, when it defeated Yemen with three unanswered goals on November 26, 2019, before losing to Iraq with two unanswered goals and from Qatar 2. -4, and in “Gulf 25” in Iraq, the team lost to Bahrain 1-2, and to Kuwait 0-1, and tied with Qatar 1-1. In the current edition, he repeated the same result with Al-Annabi, then finally lost to Kuwait.
For his part, the Portuguese coach, Paulo Bento, said in a press conference: “There is no alternative to winning and qualifying… and we must find solutions to reach the goal of the strong Omani team.” He added: “I have not yet decided the starting lineup, but it will certainly include Yahya Nader and Khalifa Al Hammadi.” Despite committing fatal mistakes in the last match against Kuwait,” he continued: “I call on everyone to be calm and not to worry, as the match must be controlled through several things and the correct strategy must be chosen.”
In turn, Omani coach Rashid Jaber said: “Matches against the UAE national team always involve motivation and good performance, but they require great desire and high confidence,” adding: “All qualification calculations exist for all teams, but I hope we do not see refereeing errors affecting the course of the matches.”
. Winning with two goals keeps Al-Abyad away from the complex calculations of qualifying in “Gulf 26”
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