Iraq to restore glories and Bahrain to embrace history

Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium in Duhail will open at 5:00 p.m., the first encounter for the Golden Square of the 24th Gulf Championship between Iraq and Bahrain, where the lions of Mesopotamia aspire to qualify for the finals and restore the championship which has been missing for 30 years. On the other hand, the Bahraini Reds seek to embrace history and qualify for the first time to the finals of the new championship system and then think about the title they have been pursuing for five decades.

Iraq and Bahrain played the group stage with a large number of players which makes all the odds possible in the encounter in Duhail. Slovenian Srečko Katanec and Portuguese Hélio Sousa faced three times in three months. Iraq triumphed in the West Asian finals at Karbala International Stadium with a clean goal and a draw dominated at Manama’s and Oman’s matches last September and November to account for the double Asian qualifiers for the World Cup 2022 and the Asian Nations 2023.

The Bahrain national team, although they worked hard to qualify and through the overtime, and their inclusion is worthy considering their contribution in the group league, Hélio Sousa confirmed that the level of the Red has not yet reached the level of the other three teams, where he said at the press conference:

“We have not yet reached the level of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iraq. The tools are different. The players are semi-professional. These players must have a high capacity and a strong will to face any team.” However, the possibility of blocking Bahrain remains on the grounds that Katanec cannot beat him for 270 minutes.

While the Iraqi team has a mixture of players with experience and youthful vitality, maturity is present in Ahmed Ibrahim, goalkeeper Jalal Hassan, Alaa Abdulzahra and Ali Mahawi, and vitality is existent in Mohammed Qasim, Mimi, Alaa Abbas, Maitham Jabbar and Muhannad Ali. However, many believes that Iraq is more likely to qualify based on experience, but the game will not be easy.

At the press conference, Katanec stressed the importance of realism.
“We have to be realistic. It is true that Iraq did not exceed the semi-finals in the previous tournaments and this is already gone. The players are different here and I am not worried about that. The game has two rounds and penalties. We will prepare ourselves for that, we will train for that, and determine who executes penalties. We will try to put pressure on the Bahrain team.”

These two teams played once in the elimination phase since the application of the current system – that was in Gulf 21 in Manama. Iraq excelled on penalties after a 1-1 draw, while they played together in the overall Gulf Cup clashes 10 times. Iraq won five times and Bahrain once in Gulf 19; and a draw on four occasions, most recently in the Kuwait tournament.