Bahrain's senior men’s football national team arrived yesterday in Jeddah, where they will play their next match against Saudi Arabia in the third round of Asian qualifiers for the Fifa World Cup 2026.
The game is scheduled for Tuesday night at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium. It is slated for a 9pm kick-off, Bahrain time.
The nationals travelled on a special charter flight yesterday.
The fixture will be the fourth in this stage of qualification for the brotherly Gulf sides. Both teams have four points apiece in third and fourth place, respectively, on the Group C standings, with Saudi holding a superior goal difference.
They are ranked behind table-toppers Japan who have a maximum nine points from three wins and second-placers Australia who also have four points. Rounding off the divisional standings are Indonesia with three points and China with zero.
In other Group C games on Tuesday, Japan host Australia in a mammoth clash at Saitama Stadium 2002 at 1.35pm, and China welcome Indonesia to Qingdao Youth Football Stadium for a 3pm contest. Both times are Bahrain.
There are three groups in all in Asian qualification’s third phase. 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 Fifa World Cup 2026.
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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