The delegation of our first national football team leaves Doha today, heading to the city of Al-Ahsa in Saudi Arabia to meet its Afghan counterpart tomorrow, Thursday, in the fifth and penultimate round of the double qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup and the 2027 Asian Cup within the first group, which also includes Kuwait and India.
The delegation includes 29 players: Ibrahim Al-Hassan, Tamim Mansour, Ahmed Al-Rawi, Nayef Al-Hadrami, Hazem Ahmed (Al-Rayyan), Shehab Al-Laithi, Tahseen Muhammad, Youssef Ayman, Fares Amer (Al-Duhail), Mustafa Tariq, Abdullah Al-Yazidi, Saad Al-Shaib, Youssef Abdel Razzaq (Al-Sadd), Ahmed Al-Janhi, Hammam Al-Amin, and Abdullah Youssef ( Al-Gharafa), Muhammad Ayyash, Youssef Ziyad, Jassim Al-Sharshani (Al-Ahly), Abdullah Al-Ahraq, and Youssef Muhammad (Qatar).
Khaled Ali and Nabil Irfan (Al-Wakrah), Mohammed Khaled, Al-Hashemi Al-Hussein (Spanish Calhora), Amir Hassan, Ahmed Fathi (Al-Arabi), Ali Nader (Al-Khor), Mahdi Al-Muajba (North).
Al-Anabi completed its preparations for the confrontation with main and basic training yesterday evening under the leadership of Spanish coach Marquez Lopez, and the team concludes its preparations with a light training session this evening after arriving safely in Al-Ahsa.
Lopez decided all matters related to the technical aspects of the match, and settled on the basic formation, which will be a new formation based on some basic elements, and on a large number of young players and new presences who joined the ranks of Annabi for the first time due to Lopez’s decision to rest a large number of the basic elements and the first stars of Annabi. Especially since our team is officially guaranteed to qualify for the third stage of the World Cup qualifiers, and is also guaranteed to qualify for the 2027 Asian Finals in Saudi Arabia.
Lopez was keen to clarify the level of the Afghan team in front of the young and new players and stress that the task will not be easy at all, especially since the two teams’ motto is victory and three points. The Afghan team hopes to exploit the absence of Al-Anabi’s top stars and win against our new, young team. Lopez stressed the difficulty of the confrontation and the difficulty of it. The Afghan team has achieved good results now, except for its harsh loss to Al-Anabi in the first round 1-8
The last training sessions for Al-Anabi were dominated by a high spirit of morale from all the players, and everyone has determination and resolve to continue the journey of the seniors and to continue Al-Anabi’s victories until the end, achieving the full mark and confirming the lead in the group.
The spirit of enthusiasm also dominates the players, especially the new ones, despite their awareness of the difficulty of the task as they face a complete team and an advanced team like the Afghan team, which everyone expects to be a strong surprise, especially since it has become a strong competitor to qualify for the first time in its history to the third stage of the World Cup qualifiers and to the Asian Cup finals.
All indicators confirm that the last two rounds in the group will witness an exciting struggle for third place and to accompany Al Annabi and qualify with him… as the teams of Kuwait, India and Afghanistan have the opportunity so far.
On the other hand, Jassim Al-Sharshani, our national team player, stressed the importance of the match against the Afghan national team in the fifth round of the double Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup and the 2027 Asian Cup, stressing the importance of obtaining the full score in order to continue to lead the group without defeat before entering the decisive third round of qualifiers. For the 2026 World Cup.
Al-Sharshani stressed that the technical staff was keen to strengthen many aspects of the team over the past period, pointing out the need to be careful when facing the Afghan team, which will also be looking to achieve a positive result and maintain its hopes in the group.
The player pointed out that the technical staff, led by Spanish coach Marques Lopez, is making great efforts with all the players and giving them a high spirit and morale to achieve the desired goals.
