FOOTBALL – BAHRAIN’S senior men’s football national team registered a resounding 4-1 victory against Slovenian professional club Mura last night in a friendly match played in Maribor, Slovenia.
The fixture was the second tune-up of their summer training camp in Europe, where they are currently preparing for upcoming competitions, including the third round of Asian qualification for the FIFA World Cup 2026.
Four different players were on target for the Bahrainis on either side of the break. They included Ebrahim Al Khattal, Ahmed Al Sherooqi, Hussain Abdulkareem, and Ali Madan.
Head coach Dragan Talajic fielded a starting 11 that included Al Khattal, Al Sherooqi, Ismaeel Abdullatif, Amine Benaddi, Ahmed Nabeel, Abdulwahab Al Malood, Moses Atede, Mohammed Adel, Abbas Al Asfoor, Hazza Ali, and Ammar Mohammed in goal.
Al Khattal was first to strike in the ninth minute, and then Al Sherooqi doubled their advantage 12 minutes on. Abdulkareem then supplied Bahrain’s third five minutes after the hour-mark, and then just four minutes later Madan got his name onto the scoresheet.
Yesterday’s friendly followed a first against Croatian outfit NK Lokomotiva Zagreb, which the Bahrainis lost 2-3. Mura were the Slovenian PrvaLiga champions in the 2020-21 season.
Bahrain are scheduled to continue their camp until Friday, after which they will fly back to the kingdom.
The nationals then open their Group C campaign in the third round of FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifying on September 5 away against Australia. The other nations in their division are Japan, Saudi Arabia, China, and Indonesia.
There are three groups in all in this stage of Asian qualifiers. Group A features Iran, Qatar, Uzbekistan, the UAE, Kyrgyzstan and North Korea; while Group B is composed of South Korea, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Palestine and Kuwait.
The top two finishers from each group will punch their tickets to the World Cup finals. The third and fourth-placed squads will compete in a fourth round, where they will be divided into another two groups. There, the winners of each qualify for football’s global showpiece.
The two second-placers will then square off in a home-and-away phase with the victors marching forward to compete in an inter-continental play-off for one final available World Cup berth.
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