As the date of the World Cup qualifiers for the Asian continent approaches, the Asian Football Confederation has begun to shed light on the qualified teams and their journey in the recently concluded second stage qualifiers, which witnessed the qualification of 18 teams, led by our national team, which came at the top of the standings of Group A.
The AFC confirmed in its report on our national team that Al-Anabi aspires to reach the World Cup finals for the second time in its history, after it participated for the first time in the last edition in 2022, which was held on its home soil.
Annabi qualified after obtaining first place in the first group, and is considered one of eight teams that finished the second round of the qualifiers without suffering any loss in 6 matches.
The 2023 Asian Cup champion topped the standings of Group A in the second round of the joint Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup and the 2027 Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia, also booking a qualification ticket to the continental finals.
Our team collected 16 points from six matches, after winning five matches, compared to a draw in one match, and scored 18 goals, compared to conceding 3 goals against itself.
Al-Anabi started the competition strongly, when it achieved a home victory over Afghanistan with a score of 8-1, and Al-Moez Ali scored three goals in this match. Then he succeeded in the second round by achieving an away victory over India with a score of 3-0.
After that, Al-Anabi played two consecutive matches with Kuwait in the third and fourth rounds, where they achieved victory in Doha 3-0 in a match in which Akram Afif scored two goals, then returned and renewed their superiority with a score of 2-1 and Al-Moez scored the two winning goals in this match.
After achieving four consecutive victories, the Annabi national team secured the top spot in the group and qualified for the third round of the Asian qualifiers. Coach Marques Lopez played the last two matches with a squad that was missing a number of the most prominent stars, and he gave the young players an opportunity to participate.
The fifth round saw Qatar draw with Afghanistan 0-0 in Al-Ahsa, then the team came back from behind in the final round to achieve victory against India with a score of 2-1 in Doha.
Striker Almoez Ali was at the top of the scorers’ standings in the second round of the qualifiers with 7 goals, equal to South Korean Son Heung-min, even though he missed the last two matches in the group. On the other hand, Akram Afif, Ahmed Al-Rawi and Mustafa Meshaal scored two goals for the team.
Al-Anabi’s Spanish coach, Marques Lopez, stressed the importance of continuing strong performances, and said: We have a long journey ahead of us in the final round of qualifiers, in order to get closer to achieving the dream of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, which is a very important matter for us.
It should be noted that Annabi qualified for the first time to the World Cup in the last edition, 2022, in Doha, as the host team.
