A new chapter of the Gulf challenge between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait
Abdullah Al-Khalifa stadium “Al-Duhail” will host tomorrow’s game at 8:00 p.m., where an encounter between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in the first round of Group B of the Gulf Championship 24 shall be witnessed.
The encounter draws attention due to the historic challenge and the frantic competition between Blue and Green, which continued for 49 years.
The Saudi team came to Doha with all the members of its squad: Salem Al-Dosari, Yahya Al-Shehri, Abdullah Atif, Salman Al-Faraj, Abdul Fattah Asiri and Nawaf Al-Abed, in order to achieve the title which has been elusive from the Green treasury since the Kuwait Championship 2003.
French captain Hervé Renard, an experienced captain of the African continent, is making his debut at the Gulf Championship in the hope of crowning the Green under his leadership to gain more confidence in his career with the Asian qualifiers.
At the press conference before the confrontation, Renard refused to talk about any possible expectations in the Azraq match. He also did not hide his fear of the absence of Al Hilal players from training sessions because of some injuries as he said: “Unfortunately, the Hilal players Mohammed Al-Owais and Mohammed Al-Breik were injured lately. Most of the players participated on Sunday in the AFC Champions League final, while some of them played on Saturday in the league. This will affect the team to be frank with you, but football always has its own circumstances and also the absence of Madhu, the Nasr player, is important too, but we have to act in the best possible way.”
On the other hand, the Kuwaiti team enters the confrontation, armed with legacy and tradition, as it has achieved 10 titles across different times and generations. It loves this tournament more than any other tournament.
Kuwait has done well so far in the Asian double qualifiers, except for their loss to Australia, scoring positive results.
Kuwait relies heavily on the skill of its first star Bader Al-Mutawa and a good battalion of players, most notably Fahad Al-Ansar, Faisal Zayed, Talal Al-Fadhil, Fahad Al-Hajri and Yousef Nasser.
Enad admitted before the game that the Gulf championship has its own character as he said: “I am in front of a great responsibility and as a player, assistant coach and a coach and I know a lot about it is hidden. It is very difficult off the pitch because of the privacy that no one is unaware of and this is a wonderful feeling to contend the tournament this time as a coach for the Kuwaiti team.”
He continued: “Gulf championship started before the whistle of referees and this is the nature of the momentum that accompanies them as you can see now in the press conference – a championship that makes everyone lives under great pressure.”
The first encounter in the Gulf Championships was held during the Gulf 1 where Kuwait won 3-1. Before Wednesday’s game both teams played 21 times in the Gulf Championships – Kuwait won 9 times, Saudi Arabia 5 times and the draw attended on 7 occasions, the Blue attack scored 27 goals, and Green shook the Kuwaiti net 19 times, the most recent was by Mukhtar Fallatah in the last tournament.