Bahrain are expecting to compete in the toughest-ever edition of the Gulf Cup – the region’s biggest and most-anticipated football competition – scheduled to be held from December 21 to January 3 in Kuwait City.
This has been stressed by senior men’s football national team head coach Dragan Talajic.
Bahrain are one of eight teams that will be vying for the coveted crown in the 26th edition of the prestigious tournament, and Talajic is anticipating a massive challenge, with all but one of the participating squads also currently competing in the third round of Asian qualification for the Fifa World Cup 2026.
“If you compare with the other Gulf Cup tournaments in the past, this will be harder than ever before,” Talajic told the GDN. “Almost all the teams are in the third round of World Cup qualifying, and that means all of us are of high quality, so it will be very difficult.”
Bahrain are in Group B for the tournament’s preliminary round alongside Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Group A is composed of hosts Kuwait, Oman, the UAE, and Qatar.
From all those sides, only the Yemenis are not in Fifa World Cup qualification, but Talajic stressed there will be no easy opponents.
“Even Yemen, they are also a danger for everyone,” he said. “We must always be ready for big games, especially in the Gulf Cup.
“Everybody wants us to play in this competition and make some success. I hope we will show the kind of power we have.”
The Bahrainis open their campaign in the competition’s preliminary round against the Saudis on December 22, and then face Iraq in a Christmas Day game on December 25. They complete their group campaign against Yemen on December 28.
All three matches are set to take place at Kuwait City’s Jaber Al Ahmad International Stadium.
“It will not only be a tough start for us against Saudi and Iraq, but it will be a difficult tournament all the way,” Talajic added. “All games we will play will be tough.
“I am also not happy that we will play Saudi because they are also with us in our World Cup group, so we have to face them in another qualification game and I don’t know which team they will bring to the Gulf Cup.
“But we will prepare like we usually prepare for every team we will play. We will try to play nice football and to win the games.”
The top two sides in each group at the end of the single round-robin will move on to the semi-finals. The winners of those games will then battle for the coveted title.
The kingdom’s senior men’s squad are scheduled to kick off their preparations for the upcoming Gulf Cup on December 15, a team official told the GDN.
Bahrain have won the Gulf Cup crown just once in its past editions – back in the 2019 tournament when they defeated Saudi in the final. Portuguese coach Helio Sousa guided the Bahrainis to that historic title, and Talajic was all praise for his counterpart.
“Congratulations to my colleague before, who made this achievement – Mr Sousa,” said the Croatian. “He made a historic win for Bahrain and congrats to them.
“We will try to win this tournament again, but nobody can promise anything in the beginning. I can only say it was a big achievement for Sousa and the national team, and we will try to repeat this.
“I know expectations from everyone in Bahrain are really high – everyone wants us to repeat this success from 2019, and of course my boys we will do our best to make all Bahraini proud of us.
“I can promise to everyone that we will fight for every single win in this tournament, and inshallah we will celebrate all together.”
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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