FOOTBALL – Bahrain's senior men’s football national team returned to the kingdom from Australia last night and now look ahead to facing Japan in their next Asian qualifying assignment for the Fifa World Cup 2026.
The Bahrainis travelled back from the Gold Coast on a special charter flight from Brisbane Airport.
Upon reaching the island, they went straight to InterContinental Bahrain where they will be residing as a team ahead of facing the Japanese.
The Bahrainis host their heavily favoured rivals at the National Stadium in Riffa on Tuesday next week. Both sides are coming off big victories in their opening games on Thursday – when Bahrain stunned Australia 1-0 away and Japan routed China 7-0 at home.
The Bahrainis will be aiming to come away with a second straight upset, while the Japanese, who are presently the top-ranked team in Asia, will be looking to build on their strong start to this round after finishing the previous stage undefeated while not conceding any goals.
“I believe that the players recognised the importance and difficulty of the first match of the qualifiers and made the best possible preparations, which led to this result,” Japan head coach Hajime Moriyasu was quoted as saying by the Japan Football Association.
“This is the result of the staff and everyone working hard to get off to a good start, facing up to what we had to do during the two preparation periods and training sessions.
“I think that there will be even tougher battles ahead, but we will come together as a team and fight with all our might to deliver a victory to our supporters.”
Japan have a 27-player squad for the Bahrain game – a wide majority of whom suit up for top football clubs across Europe.
Tickets are now available for the match. They are priced at BD10 apiece for category one seats, the Bahrain Football Association (BFA) had announced. Tickets can be purchased at the BFA headquarters in Riffa until Monday, between 8am and 2pm.
JAPAN SQUAD: Keisuke Osako (Sanfrecce Hiroshima), Kosei Tani (FC Machida Zelvia), Zion Suzuki (Parma Calcio 1913/Italy), Yuto Nagatomo (FC Tokyo), Shogo Taniguchi (Sint-Truidense VV/Belgium), Kou Itakura (Borussia MG/Germany), Yuta Nakayama (FC Machida Zelvia), Koki Machida (Royale Union Saint-Gilloise/Belgium), Yukinari Sugawara (Southampton FC/England), Henry Heroki Mochizuki (FC Machida Zelvia), Kota Takai (Kawasaki Frontale), Wataru Endo (Liverpool FC/England), Junya Ito (Stade de Reims/France), Takuma Asano (RCD Mallorca/Spain), Takumi Minamino (AS Monaco/France), Hidemasa Morita (Sporting CP/Portugal), Daichi Kamada (Crystal Palace/England), Kaoru Mitoma (Brighton and Hove Albion FC/England), Koki Ogawa (NEC Nijmegen/Netherlands), Daizen Maeda (Celtic FC/Scotland), Reo Hatate (Celtic FC/Scotland), Ritsu Doan (SC Freiburg/Germany), Ayase Ueda (Feyenoord/Netherlands), Ao Tanaka (Fortuna Dusseldorf/Germany), Keito Nakamura (Stade de Reims/France), Takefusa Kubo (Real Sociedad/Spain), Mao Hosoya (Kashiwa Reysol)
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