FOOTBALL – “WE are not scared of anyone; they need to be scared of us!”
This was boldly claimed by Bahrain head coach Dragan Talajic last night as the kingdom’s senior men’s football national team kicked off their final preparations for the upcoming 26th Gulf Cup, set to be hosted by Kuwait starting Saturday.
“We are Bahraini, we are going to win,” Talajic told a group of media prior to the start of their first training session ahead of the highly anticipated tournament.
“We will fight every single game to win and go step by step, game by game. Inshaallah, we will see you in the final.
“We respect all our opponents, but like I’ve said, we are Bahraini and we want to win the tournament.
“We are not scared of anyone; they need to be scared of us! We will go game by game and see what will happen.”
Talajic and his staff welcomed Bahrain’s call-ups for this year’s Gulf Cup in their practice session last night at the Bahrain Football Association pitches in Riffa.
The nationals are scheduled to depart today morning for Kuwait City and begin the final lead-up to the competition, which features eight teams. Bahrain are in Group B for the tournament’s preliminary round alongside defending champions Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Group A is composed of hosts Oman, the UAE, Qatar, and hosts Kuwait.
“Our preparations until now was more of monitoring other teams,” Talajic explained. “Our league finished yesterday, and I am happy that we don’t have any injuries with our players.
“Today is our first training, tomorrow we travel to Kuwait, and there we will have two or three training sessions before our game against Saudi. Inshaallah, everything will be okay.”
The Bahrainis open their campaign against the Saudis on the tournament’s second day of action on Sunday. It is scheduled for an 8.30pm kick-off, Bahrain time, and it will be played at Kuwait City’s Jaber Al Ahmad International Stadium.
Group A games are scheduled for Saturday, with Kuwait taking on Oman at 8pm followed by the UAE facing Qatar at 10.30pm. All times are Bahrain.
Mahdi Humaidan, one of Bahrain’s top national team stars, stressed on the importance of having a good start to the tournament.
“We are all ready as players,” he told the GDN. “We’ve been playing in our leagues and in the Asian championships, so mentally we are prepared, and we should now focus on the first game.
“The Gulf Cup is an important championship for us and for all the other Gulf teams. All the participating teams are good and have prepared well. We hope we get some good results, our fans stand behind us, and inshaallah we make it to the final.”
Humaidan was part of the squad that won Bahrain’s first and only Gulf Cup title in 2019. The nationals then narrowly missed out on the championship match in the previous edition held last year, losing in the semi-finals.
“We wish to make a good result – same from the last two editions,” Humaidan added. “We were champions in 2019 and had a good tournament the last time out in Iraq.
“We wish to play well, start good, and inshaallah qualify from our group.”
Following their opener against Saudi, Bahrain face Iraq in a Christmas Day game, and then complete their group campaign against Yemen on December 28.
The top two sides in each group at the end of the single round-robin will move on to the semi-finals on December 31. The winners of those games will then battle for the coveted title in the final on January 3.
The tournament champions will pocket US$1million, while the runners-up will take home US$750,000.
Talajic has called up 26 players for this year’s Gulf Cup. They are Humaidan, Komail Al Aswad, Mohammed Jassim Marhoon, Ali Madan, Mahdi Abduljabbar, Amine Benaddi, Waleed Al Hayyam, Ebrahim Lutfhallah, Sayed Mohammed Jaafar, Ismaeel Abdullatif, Sayed Dhiya Saeed, Sayed Mahdi Baqer, Jassim Al Shaikh, Hazza Ali, Abdulwahab Al Malood, Mohammed Al Rumaihi, Ammar Mohammed, Hamad Shamsan, Abdulla Al Khalasi, Mohammed Adel, Vincent Emmanuel, Abbas Al Asfoor, Sayed Ahmed Al Wadaei, Ahmed Al Sherooqi, Ebrahim Al Khattal, and Hussain Abdulkarim.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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