Moroccan Tariq Al-Saktiwi, coach of the Oman national team, confirmed that the 1-1 draw against Iraq at the opening of the two teams’ campaign in “Gulf 27” came under different preparation conditions.
Al-Saktiwi told Asharq Al-Awsat: “In the first half, we were not good at possession, and we did not deal with rebounds as required, but the reaction in the second half was positive and the players followed the instructions.”
He added: There are differences in circumstances and they are not tactical. We only had three camps, the last of which was for 9 days with local players, while Iraq has greater technical stability and played more matches with the same group.
Al-Saktiwi pointed out that the return of a number of Omani players from injuries affected their physical readiness, which, according to his description, appeared during the last ten minutes of the match.
Al-Saktiwi believes that the draw in the opening of Oman’s campaign in “Gulf 27” cannot be read from the tactical aspect only, but is also related to the extent of the group’s readiness and the stability that preceded the tournament, while stressing that the improvement that appeared in the second half represents a positive aspect that can be built upon in the upcoming matches.
The 27th Gulf Cup tournament, held in Jeddah, continues on Thursday with two matches, as Qatar engages in a strong confrontation with Bahrain, the defending champion in Group Two, while the UAE national team launches its campaign against Yemen with the slogan of achieving a strong start that confirms its declared ambitions to compete for the title.
Bahrain's Croatian coach Dragan Talajic ignited the atmosphere with statements in which he confirmed Bahrain's intentions to maintain the title by saying: "The Bahraini national team will be the last to return from Jeddah because we will preserve the title."
He added: “We will face a team that will participate in the World Cup, but I have full confidence in all the players.”
Talajic relies on a group of the most prominent players who achieved the title of the previous version, such as goalkeeper Ibrahim Lotfallah, Walid Al-Hayam, Mahdi Hamidan, Kamil Al-Aswad, and Ali Madan.
The pressure appears to be greater on the Qatari team, which is required to return to the Gulf front after an absence from the coronation since 2014, after its unsatisfactory appearance in the last World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
His Spanish coach, Lopetegui, will undertake his first mission in the Gulf, as he aspires to erase the image in which he appeared in the World Cup when he was eliminated from the group stage.
Lopetegui said: “The World Cup is a thing of the past, and we are now thinking about the future.” We are not here to prepare for the Asian Cup, but rather we are putting most of our focus on the Gulf Cup, and our goal is to compete, but we are dealing with the tournament step by step, and we are currently focusing on the kickoff against a strong and difficult team that we know well.”
Al-Annabi is counting on stability through the technical staff maintaining the combination of the old guard that played in the World Cup and contributed to achieving the 2019 Asian Cup titles in the UAE and the 2023 titles in Doha.
The Qatari national team places great confidence in its first star, Akram Afif, the best player in Asia twice before, and its historic top scorer, Almoez Ali, along with experienced players such as Khoukhi Boualem, Pedro Miguel, and captain Hassan Al-Haydos.
During the previous editions of the tournament, the Qatari and Bahraini teams met in 19 matches, each of them winning five matches, while nine matches ended in a draw, and the Qatari team scored 16 goals compared to 12 for Bahrain.
In the second match, the UAE enters the current version, raising its ambitions and aiming to qualify for at least the final.
In the last three editions, “Al-Abyad” suffered unprecedented negative results, after the 2007 and 2013 champions were eliminated from the group stage, and did not know the taste of victory in the last eight matches since defeating Yemen by three clean goals on November 26, 2019 in “Gulf 24”.
After gaining 3 points and then suffering two losses in the Doha edition, he recorded the worst participation in Iraq in 2023 in its history, with a point from a draw and two losses, then two points in the last edition in Doha after a loss and two draws.
Croatian coach Zlatko Dalic said, outlining the goals of the team he is leading in his first mission since his appointment in August as a replacement for Romanian Cosmin Olariu: “The competition in the tournament will be great, and a great challenge for us and me personally. Our group includes Yemen, Qatar and Bahrain, and our first goal is to qualify from the group stage, and then we will proceed step by step, and I am sure that we can do what we plan.”
He continued: “I spoke with the players and explained to them what our first goal is, and we will fight to be champions, and we must keep in mind that we can achieve everything, because we have a good team.”
The most successful coach in the history of the Croatian national team, after leading it to runner-up at the 2018 World Cup and a bronze medal in 2022, confirmed: “I, too, like the UAE fans, are hungry for tournaments, and I want to continue my successful work and fight for the title.”
The bet will be on Dalic (59 years old) and his Gulf experience, after he previously led Al-Faisaly and Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia and Al-Ain in the Emirates, to lead a proven group of players that includes 16 naturalized players, most of whom played in the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, during which “Al-Abyad” failed to repeat the achievement of ascending to the world football event for the second time after 1990 in Italy by losing in the Asian playoff to Iraq.
