In a few hours, the journey and dream of our national football team will begin to reach the 2026 World Cup for the second time in a row. The journey will start tomorrow with the UAE match at Ahmed bin Ali World Cup Stadium in Al Rayyan. Only a few hours remain until this anticipated match, and all that remains is the final training session that will be held this evening, during which all technical matters related to the match will be decided.
Our national team will conclude its preparations this evening, where it will undergo a light training session during which it will focus on the basic formation with which it will begin the journey, which was largely decided by the Spanish coach of Al-Annabi, Marquez Lopez, in previous training sessions, and the matter now needs the final touches in today’s training session.
Al-Annabi has many indispensable winning cards in the starting lineup, most notably goalkeepers Saad Al-Sheeb and Mishaal Barsham, in addition to the defense line that relies on Lucas Mendez, Tariq Salman, Pedro, Humam Al-Amin and Boualem Khoukhi, and the midfield that includes the returning veterans Karim Boudiaf, Asim Madibo and Abdulaziz Hatem, and finally in the attack, Almoez Ali, Akram Afif and Ahmed Alaa.
Al-Annabi also has an important weapon, which is the public attendance at the match and the support of all Qataris for their team with enthusiasm and high spirits.
Previous events and tournaments have proven that the Qatari audience is no longer present only in the stands, but is present with enthusiasm and effectiveness and performs its duty to the fullest, regardless of the course of the game, which is what always distinguishes the Qatari audience.
Perhaps the success of our national team in changing the results of some matches in the previous period, especially in the Asian Cup, is evidence of the positive role it plays.
Lopez has largely decided on the starting lineup, but he has not revealed it until every player on the list is ready to play the match. The lineup will be revealed tomorrow in the final technical lecture, in which the coach will talk about how to face the UAE national team and the duties of each player.
It can be said that there is a great understanding and harmony between Lopez and the players, who have become fully aware of their coach’s vision in general for the qualifiers and in particular for each match.
Yesterday, Al Annabi held its main training session with the participation of all players. The training session included a strong division in which the features of the playing method and plan and how to confront the UAE team appeared. The training session also included examining the most prominent features of the UAE team and its most prominent, strongest and most dangerous elements whose danger must be limited.
First encounter between Marquez and Pinto
Tomorrow’s match is the first confrontation between the Spanish Marquez Lopez, coach of our national team, and the Portuguese Paulo Bento, coach of the UAE national team.
Marquez Lopez enters the match as the 2023 Asian Cup title holder with merit and without loss, and he also enters it after he passed the double qualifying stage with Al-Annabi without any defeat.
As for Bento, he took over the training of the Emirates last year after resigning from training the South Korean national team following the 4-0 loss to Brazil in the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Marquez dreams of reaching the World Cup for the first time in his history, while Bento hopes to repeat the achievement for the second time in a row after leading the South Korean national team to the Qatar World Cup.
White in Doha today
The UAE national team delegation arrives in Doha today in preparation for the match against our national team tomorrow, as the “Whites” will undergo their official training at Ahmed bin Ali Stadium tomorrow. Paulo Bento, the coach of the UAE national team, confirmed in his statement to the media that the level of focus and preparation has been raised for the beginning of the journey in this decisive round, and said: “We are aware of the strength of the competitors we will face. The Qatari national team won the Asian Cup title in the last two editions, and the Iranian national team. We are now focusing on the first match against Qatar, and we seek to play with the required organization. In general, the qualifiers will not end after these two matches, and we still have a lot to do.”
He added: The trio who joined from Europe have started to adapt with the players and are currently undergoing training in order to improve harmony, while he seeks to find the necessary solutions to compensate for the absences, especially the striker Sultan Adel. However, he trusts the existing group and looks forward to them providing their maximum energy in the next stage. He said: “I do not promise anything special, but I promise to continue to continue what we presented in the last stage of the qualifiers, which was good.”
A landslide victory in the last encounter
The two teams met in Doha for the last time in the quarter-finals of the 2021 Arab Cup at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, and Al Annabi achieved a crushing victory at the time with five goals scored by Al Moez Ali (two goals) who knows his way to the Emirati goal well, Khoukhi Boualem, and Abdulaziz Hatem, and the fifth goal was scored by Emirati defender Ali Salmeen in his own goal.
The last match between the two teams was in the group stage of the 25th Gulf Cup in the Emirates, and the match ended in a 1-1 draw. Al-Annabi played the match with a lineup of Al-Annabi Olympic and Youth stars.
35 thousand tickets sold
It is expected that the Ahmed bin Ali World Cup Stadium in Al Rayyan will be filled to capacity for the Gulf and Asian summit between Al-Annabi and Al-Abyad tomorrow, after about 35 thousand tickets have been sold so far out of the stadium’s capacity of about 45 thousand spectators.
Until the day before yesterday, it was officially announced that more than 75% of the total tickets that were put up for sale to the fans have been sold, who are still buying the remaining tickets in order to attend the match and to support Al-Annabi and stand behind its stars in the first step in the World Cup qualifiers. Al-Annabi fans raised the slogan “We are all behind Al-Annabi”… and everyone, without exception, is awaiting the kick-off, which is considered the most important and most difficult in any journey. It is true that the start is on our home field and among our fans, but the competitor is not easy, and the qualifiers are a very difficult journey, and it needs a successful and positive first step that raises morale, increases ambition, and pushes everyone to continue the journey.