Ahmed Eltigani
Tonight’s fixtures will bring Group B back into the
limelight as powerhouse Kuwait takes on defending champions Oman at 17:50 Doha
time at the Abdullah Bin Khalifa Stadium. Subsequently, Bahrain will be facing
Saudi Arabia at 20:00 Doha Time at the same stadium.
Bahrain came out of
their opening match against Oman in a goalless draw, and will be looking to end
the drought tonight against their Saudi counterparts. Bahrain coach Helio Souza
said his team will be looking for a better result in tonight’s fixture, “We
focus on ourselves and try to improve our performance and be more aggressive.
We are here to win all the games and try to move forward step by step, we
played against the Omani team and provided a good level, we are trying to beat
Saudi Arabia in order to move forward and reach as far as possible in the
championship.”
Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, lost their opener against
Kuwait 3-1, a team that has won the championship 10 times and are among the favourites
to win the competition, however, Saudi Arabia were missing key players that were
unable to play due to having participated in the AFC Champions League for Al
Hilal. Saudi coach Herve Renard commented on the loss in a press conference, “If
you look back at the history of this Cup, you will find that teams which have
lost the first match have won the championship. So nothing is lost and we have
our task cut out. We have two win both our matches,” “Everybody knows how difficult
the preparations for this tournament were, especially since most of the players
participated before the tournament in the AFC Champions League. I am sure that
the team will be better with the return of Al Hilal players and we play a high
standard of football against Bahrain, but we must focus.”