A big confrontation between Oman and Kuwait
Abdullah Al-Khalifa Stadium “Al-Duhail” will host at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday the expected big confrontation between the Kuwaiti and Omani teams in the second round of the second group of the Gulf 24 Championship.
The confrontation is expected to show its details off and inside the stadium where the two teams were armed in the presence of a remarkable crowd in the first round at Abdullah Al-Khalifa Stadium. More than 9,000 spectators were present in the confrontations against Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
The Kuwaiti team, led by national coach Thamer Enad, looked like a hero who was coming in order to regain something from the past glories in this tournament, after shocking Saudi Arabia with a three goals win.
Thamer Anad relies on a mixture of experienced players – notably Bader Al Mutawa, Yousef Nasser, Abdullah Al Buraiki and Fahad Al Ansari, and several young faces, most notably Mubarak Al Fanini and Sami Al Sanea, hoping to beat Oman.
The Kuwait coach praised Oman saying: “The confrontation with Oman is no less important than the one against Saudi Arabia. They are strong and the team was renewed. They are the title holder, and in my opinion, they are most likely to win this championship. We will enter the game with ambition to win the three points.”
On the other hand, the defending champions did not score the appearance that was expected by the fans who supported them for 90 minutes against Bahrain, where they could not impose the character of a hero. The team almost lost in the last moments of the game if not for the brilliance of the distinguished goalkeeper, Fayez Al-Rashidi.
Koeman has many important cards capable of tipping the Red: Abzerha Abdul Aziz al-Muqbali, young Arshad al-Alawi and Zaher al-Aghbari, in addition to Munther Al-Alawi and Mohsen al-Ghassani.
Al-Ahmar coach defended his team’s performance in the first round, saying: “I do not feel any pressure. Everyone is behind the team. We give our best but we did not score. I am satisfied with the performance of the players in the game.”
“Some people do not understand that Bahrain is a good team and they achieved positive results recently in the Asian double qualifiers,” he concluded.
Despite Kuwait’s superiority in nine of the 18 Gulf Cup games against Oman, Kuwait’s last victory was in the 14th Gulf held in Kuwait in 1998. After that the Omani team won four times, and the draw was five times. Kuwait scored 33 goals, while Oman scored 14 goals. The first goal for Oman was scored by Matar Khalifa in the Gulf 10 in Kuwait, 1990.