Stars of the first round of the Gulf Championship 24
The first round ended with three wins, and a negative draw between the defending champions and Bahrain. We review through this report the stars of this round.
Iraqi Mohammed Qasim
The 22-year-old broke all expectations in the opening round and was able to shake the net of the Asian champions by scoring two goals in the first half and the Adam fans were amazed.
Although he came out early in the second half of the match, Mohammed Qassim deserved to be a man of the opening night after taking the hands of Mesopotamia lions and overcoming all the crises that plagued them before facing Qatar to emerge victorious.
Ali Mabkhout
He does not need a lot of words to describe him. His feet and his head know this tournament, where he entered the Gulf 24 by eight goals. After the first hat-trick in the tournament he became number 11 in the history of White Gulf championships ahead of the historic star of the United Arab Emirates Fahd Khamis.
The 29-year-old scored for the first time in the 21st edition of the Gulf tournaments in Bahrain 2013 in Qatar’s net. At that time he also scored a goal in Bahrain’s net. In the 22nd edition in Saudi Arabia, Mabkhout scored five goals, four of them in the group stage. He also scored one goal against Oman in the 3rd place determination match. In the 23rd Gulf in Kuwait he scored a penalty against the Omani’s Red team.
Fayez Al – Rashidi
Fayez Al-Rashidi played his sixth Gulf Cup match against Bahrain in this tournament after playing five games in the 23rd Gulf in Kuwait. In the six matches, he conceded a lone goal that was scored by Makhut from a penalty kick at the start of the Kuwaiti version.
The 31-year-old son of Suwaiq in the north of Al Batinah, Oman, managed to block nine Bahraini shots and headers on the Omani’s goal that made him the man of that tough game against the Gulf champions.
Bader Al Mutawa
The captain of the Kuwaiti national team is the stainless steel, which stood up to all the crises that have hit the Kuwaiti ball in the last six years. He won the award for the best player in the Gulf Clasico and was the first star in the evening of Abdullah Al Khalifa Stadium after assisting the two goals for Ahmed Al Dhafiri and Sami Al Sanea in the Green’s net.
Al-Mutawa, who arrived for the 176th international match in the Al-Azraq’s shirt after his debut in September 2003, is the heartbeat of Al-Azraq. The national coach Thamer Ana’s counts on him a lot inside and off the pitch in leading the team.