For the first time in the Asian Cup… Saudi Green and Omani Red face to face

In their first confrontation in the Asian Cup finals, the Saudi and Omani teams will meet in the first group stage matches of the Asian Cup Qatar 2023, which Doha will host from January 12 to February 10, as part of the sixth group matches, which includes Kyrgyzstan and Thailand alongside them.

This is the first time in history that they will meet during the Asian Cup, as previous confrontations were limited to the Arabian Gulf Cup during most of its editions, or the Asian Cup or World Cup qualifiers, and other friendly matches.

The two teams faced off in 23 matches in all competitions and friendly matches, and the Greens prevailed by a large margin of victories, as they succeeded in winning 16 matches compared to the Omani Reds 5, while they tied on two occasions. The Gulf Cup Championship was the scene of most of the confrontations between the two sides, as they played 15 matches during which luck was in Saudi’s favor 12 times compared to 3 victories for Oman, and during the World Cup qualifiers, they faced off in 4 matches, during which Al-Saudi achieved two victories and two draws, in addition to 3 friendly matches, which witnessed the Omani national team prevail twice compared to one Saudi victory.

They met in the Asian Cup qualifiers only once in 1984, which witnessed the largest victory in the history of their confrontations, as the Saudi team won 6-0.

The Saudi team, which is participating for the 11th time, aspires to appear in a distinguished manner, especially since it is among the candidates to win the title, which it previously achieved on 3 occasions, and lost in the final 3 as well, relying on the experiences of its Italian coach Roberto Mancini, who took over his leadership after the World Cup finals, Meanwhile, in its fifth participation, under the leadership of its veteran Croatian coach, Branko Ivankovic, with whom it has lived a state of technical stability since 2020, Omani Red aspires to surpass the previous achievement by qualifying for the second round in the UAE 2019 edition.