Al-Abyad relies on the element of surprise against Al-Annabi in the World Cup qualifiers

Moataz Al Shami (Abu Dhabi)

Our national team enters its anticipated match against its Qatari counterpart, as part of the opening of the third stage qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, at Ahmed bin Ali Stadium “Al-Mondial” in Doha at eight o’clock in the evening, UAE time, with great motivation and a greater desire to achieve the aspirations of the Emirati football fans and please the sports community with an achievement that has been delayed since the Whites qualified for the 1990 World Cup in Italy. The first and second place teams in the group qualify directly for the World Cup, while the third and fourth place teams advance to additional qualifiers in the fourth stage.
The match is of great importance to the Emirati football fans, as it is considered a Gulf derby in the first place, in addition to the desire to achieve a positive result against Al-Annabi, after the latter’s superiority in the past years, and the technical development that has entered its performance.
The technical staff of our national team, led by Paulo Bento, took advantage of the training camp for the qualifiers, which the team entered in Abu Dhabi last Saturday, to check the readiness of all the elements called up to the list, and the coach decided to take 28 players, although the match list included only 26 players.
Bento is preparing the element of surprise in today’s lineup against Qatar, especially after he called up 3 new faces who joined the national team for the first time, talented players in European clubs, namely Adly Mohamed, the goalkeeper, Southampton player, Mackenzie Hunt, Fleetwood midfielder, and Junior Ndiaye, Montpellier striker.
Pinto made several changes to the Whites’ lineup, to make it different from the team’s journey in the second stage qualifiers, in addition to the team that participated in the Asian Cup in Doha last January, but he kept the backbone of the national team’s lineup.
Sultan Adel is absent from the national team due to lack of technical readiness, and the first choice for the Whites will be to push Caio Canedo to lead the attack, followed by Fabio Lima on the right side, and to choose between Yahya Al-Ghasani and Ali Saleh on the left flank.
The Whites are expected to play in a balanced way that tends towards defensive security and not rushing offensively against the Qatari team, which possesses strong offensive weapons. In return, adjustments will be made to the national team’s defensive lineup after summoning Kwame Atton, who has an excellent level with Al-Zaeem and has great accumulated experience, as he will be an additional option to strengthen the defensive strength of the national team’s lineup against the Qatari attack, along with Khalifa Al-Hammadi, Abdullah Idris and Zayed Sultan.
Pinto will make some tactical changes in the positions and assignments of some players, with the aim of playing a counter-attacking style, and retreating to secure the defense and control the midfield area, by pushing Yahya Nader alongside Mohamed Abbas to form the depth required to confront the opponent’s build-up attacks, and there is no disagreement about pushing Khaled Issa into our national team’s goal.
It is expected that there will be a place in the national team lineup for Mackenzie Hunt and Junior Ndiaye, as the former plays in playmaking and the attacking midfield position, and the latter as a striker and is good at playing as a late striker. The second half will be available to give one of them a chance for the first time with the national team, if the technical staff is sure of their technical readiness.
Our national team conducted its final training yesterday evening on the match field in preparation for the anticipated match that the Whites will enter with high motivation to achieve victory and come out with the first 3 points, and play for a positive result in the rest of the qualifiers, as our team will meet the Iranian team at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium in its second match in Group One next Tuesday.