Four-time winners Iraq and Gulf Cup champions Bahrain are targeting their first victory at the FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021 as both sides square off in their second Group A match at the Al Thumama Stadium, today. Bahrain lost to Qatar 1-0 in their opening match on Tuesday after ten-man Iraq salvaged a 1-1 draw against Oman following a last-gasp equaliser off a penalty kick.
Iraq coach Zeljko Petrovic rated Bahrain a difficult side, hoping to claim a victory to increase their chances for the knockout stage. “We continued to prepare for the Bahrain match by watching recording of its match against Qatar in the opening. We analysed some cases that we will work on.
Bahrain is an excellent team, and it has good players and they were a strong match for Qatar,” the Mon-tenegrin told a pre-match press conference yesterday. “All matches are difficult and we seek a positive result against Bahrain,” he added. Iraq’s Yasser Qassem was sent off in the 68th minute for his second yellow in the match against Oman and Iraq were only able to secure a point after a goal from substitute Hasan Abdulkareem.
“That last-minute penalty helped us and I am happy about that which is a part of football. We have worked to rectify the mistakes we made during our match with Oman. We per-formed well against them, espe-cially the young players, most notably Manaf Younis.” “The players made a great effort, so we made sure to prepare them for the Bahrain match, with the possibility of some changes in the squad,” he added.
Iraq and Bahrain drew both their World Cup Qualifiers in 2019, the same year when The Reds defeated the Lions of Mesopotamia 5-3 (2-2) on penalties in the Gulf Cup semi-final in Doha.However, Bahrain coach Helio Sousa said past results are not important and his team will have to work hard against Iraq, who play with a great fighting spirit.
“There are many strengths of Iraq team. They have good players but the main one is they fight till the end,” Sousa told reporters yesterday. “In the World Cup qualifiers against Iraq we were close to get victories. But all the previous results are behind us, now the conditions are completely dif-ferent. Of course, we want to win against them again but it will be a difficult match for both sides,” he said.
The Bahrain coach stressed his players must give their best in today’s match. “We played well against Qatar, especially in the first half. But we couldn’t get the desired result. We are fully aware of the importance of our match against Iraq and if we play as well as we did against Qatar, we can get a positive result tomorrow. We need to show fighting spirit if need to keep our quarter-final hopes alive,” he added.
Meanwhile, Bahrain player Mohamed Marhoon said: “We played a good match against Qatar. Though we lost, the result does not justify our performance. Our team will play tomorrow’s [today] match with high spirit and determination and will cer-tainly go all out for victory. We have the belief we can beat anyone and we still hope to go all the way in the tournament
