FOOTBALL – BAHRAIN’S senior men’s football national team are scheduled to gather on August 26 before flying the next day to Australia for the start of their third round Asian qualifying campaign for the Fifa World Cup 2026.
This was revealed yesterday by a team official.
The Bahrainis are set to begin their Group C schedule on September 5 against the highly rated Australians, who are currently ranked 24th in the world and are the fourth-best team in Asia. The game is set to be played at Robina Stadium in the Gold Coast in eastern Australia, scheduled for a 1.10pm kick-off, Bahrain time. The match venue has a capacity of close to 28,000. It is the first of 10 games in Group C.
The team official added that the nationals currently do not have any international friendly games scheduled ahead of their game Down Under.
Bahrain last played Australia in January of this year in an international friendly match in Abu Dhabi. The tune-up was part of both teams’ final preparations for the AFC Asian Cup in Doha. The Australians won 2-0. The Bahrainis were coached then by Argentinian Juan Antonio Pizzi, who has since left his post, which is now occupied by Croatian Dragan Talajic.
Bahrain’s national team have recently returned to the kingdom from a two-week overseas training camp in Maribor, Slovenia, supervised by Talajic.
Their upcoming clash against Australia will be followed by another big test just five days later against continental powerhouses Japan on September 10 at home. The contest will be held at the National Stadium in Riffa with a 7pm kick-off.
Matches in this stage continue until June of next year. The Bahrainis, Australians, and Japanese are joined in Group C by Saudi Arabia, China, and Indonesia.
There are three groups in all in this stage of AFC qualification for international football’s biggest tournament. 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.
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