FOOTBALL – BAHRAIN’S senior men’s football national team arrived yesterday in Jakarta for their match against Indonesia on Tuesday in the third round of Asian qualifiers for the Fifa World Cup 2026.
The kingdom’s delegation, headed by Bahrain Football Association (BFA) secretary general Rashed Alzaabi, were received upon reaching the Indonesian capital by officials from the Bahrain Embassy in the country.
The Bahrainis are coming off a tough 0-2 loss to Group C leaders Japan at Saitama Stadium 2002. The defeat kept them on six points and in fifth place on their division table, and it also confirmed the Japanese as the first team to officially punch their ticket, through the worldwide qualifiers, to next year’s Fifa World Cup.
The Indonesians, on the other hand, suffered a 1-5 loss against Australia in their first game with Dutch legend Patrick Kluivert in charge.
Tuesday’s fixture will be played at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, scheduled for a 4.45pm kick-off, Bahrain time.
Bahrain head coach Dragan Talajic said that his team will take the lessons they have learned from their setback against Japan as they look to secure crucial points in their remaining qualification fixtures – starting against Indonesia.
“We are learning from this game,” he said. “When (your opponent) have this kind of quality of players like (Japan) have, one small mistake and they come and score their first goal from beautiful action. We know this kind of action they can do.
“My boys are doing their best, but just one mistake against Japan – you cannot make mistakes – that is the problem. But 90 minutes I think there is no team in the world who will not make mistakes.
“I am so upset for my boys because they tried to play the best that they can. We can play a little bit better if the other side is not Japan. We will show in the other three games.”
Bahrain are expecting to be without their two star defenders Amine Benaddi and Hamad Shamsan in their upcoming contest. Both Benaddi and Shamsan started against the Japanese, but Benaddi received a yellow card which means he will miss Tuesday’s affair, while Shamsan suffered an injury and could miss some time.
The rest of the team features Mohammed Jassim Marhoon, Komail Al Aswad, Sayed Mohammed Jaafar, Mahdi Abduljabbar, Mahdi Humaidan, Ali Madan, Sayed Dhiya Saeed, Waleed Al Hayyam, Ebrahim Luthfallah, Ismaeel Abdullatif, Mohammed Al Rumaihi, Ali Haram, Sayed Mahdi Baqer, Ahmed Bughammar, Abdulla Al Khalasi, Hazza Ali, Vincent Emmanuel, Jassim Al Shaikh, Hussain Abdulkarim, Ahmed Al Sherooqi, Ebrahim Al Khattal, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaie, Hussain Al Eker, and Abdulkarim Al Fardan.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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