He begins Iraq national team His title defense campaign Gulf CupWhen it meets its Yemeni counterpart this evening, Sunday, as part of the matches of the first round of the second group of the tournament Arabian Gulf Cup Gulf 26, hosted by Kuwait, from December 21, 2024 until January 3, 2025.
Jaber Al-Mubarak Stadium will host the match between Iraq and Yemen at 4:25 Cairo time.
The second group includes the Iraqi national team, accompanied by the national teams of Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Iraq against Yemen
Iraq, the defending champion, aspires to achieve victory in order to make a strong start to pass to the semi-finals of the competition, so that it can maintain the title it achieved in 2023 on its home soil.
The Al-Rafidain Lions are seeking to achieve victory, as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are waiting for them in the next two rounds.
On the other hand, the Yemeni national team hopes to achieve its first victory in the history of its participation in the Gulf Championship, as it played 33 matches, losing 27, drawing 6, and has not achieved any victory so far.
The Yemeni national team returned to Kuwait again, after its first participation in Gulf 16 was also in Kuwait, and that edition was held in a league system, where the Yemeni national team played 6 matches, losing 5 of them and drawing one match.
The Iraqi national team hopes to maintain the title of the Arabian Gulf Football Cup, after winning the previous edition, which was held in its country in 2023.
In the last meeting between the two teams, the Al-Rafidain Lions achieved a huge victory with 5 goals in the semi-finals of the previous edition of the tournament.
Expected formation of Iraq
It is expected that Spanish coach Jesus Casas, coach of Iraq, will rely on the following formation:
Jalal Hassan – Ali Adnan – Rebin Sulaqa – Manaf Yousef – Ahmed McKenzie – Peter Korkis – Zidane Iqbal – Amjad Atwan – Ibrahim Bayesh – Ayman Hussein – Ali Jassim.
Expected formation of Yemen
While Algerian Noureddine Ould Ali will rely on the following expected Yemen formation: –
Abdullah Al-Saadi – Hamza Al-Sarabi – Haroun Al-Zubaidi – Ahmed Nasser – Radwan Al-Hubaishi – Omar Golan – Anis Al-Maari – Osama Anbar – Muhammad Hashem – Omar Al-Dahi – Tariq Shehab.