Defending champions Qatar will begin the defence of their Arabian Gulf Cup title when they face Yemen on Saturday. It kicks off at 17:30 (Kuwait time) at Kuwait Stadium. In the second fixture of Group B, Bahrain will clash with Iraq at 20:00 at the same stadium.
The three-time winners Qatar look the favourites to beat Yemen, who are still in search of their first victory in the tournament.
In the last Gulf Cup, held in Saudi Arabia in 2014, Qatar defeated the hosts to lift the title for the third time.
Al Anabi, as their Qatari fans like to call their team, are big favourites to qualify for the semifinals and might go further as they have prepared very well, playing recently against Czech Republic and Iceland. Qatar national team manager, Spanish Felix Sanchez has come to Qatar with a mix of youth and experienced players.
Al Saad veteran striker Hassan al Haydos, Akram Afifi, and AlMutaz Ali are the most important choices for the Spanish manager Sanchez.
In the pre-match press conference, Qatar manager Felix Sanchez who became the team’s third manager in less than a year was very optimistic and confident about his team.
“We are very enthusiastic to compete in this tournament and hope to carry the title back to Qatar for the second time in a row.
All the players are in their best shape physically and mentally, luckily the Qatar Football Association made a very wise decision by developing a list which includes both experience and young energetic players.” He added.
About his expectation for their game against Yemen, he answered “It’s a team with very young dynamic players who cannot be deceived easily”
“Although it’s my first time to be a part of the Arabian Gulf Cup I came with the best selection available to present a performance that suits such a huge competition” Felix ended.
On the other side, Yemen showed a bit of a good performance against Oman in the friendly that they played in Muscat last week, but they lost 1-0.
Yemen manager, Abraham Mabrato started the press conference with a very exciting statement saying “I’m here to create history, and record the first title under the name of Yemen”.
“We are in a very strong group as all of our encounters reached the World Cup qualifiers and Asian Cup, however, we prepared very well for this tournament and we reached a good stage of harmony between all the players which will help to expand the positive record.
We will face Qatar in our first game and I have to admit it is a great team with very high experience and prowess but our confidence is great in our fighters,’’ Mabrato added.
Jaber al Ajmi
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