“White” in front of North Korea … a last opportunity

The national football team will play at 10:15 pm today, at Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, a crucial match that is the last chance, against its North Korea team, in the eighth round of the first group in the third round round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, as there is no choice against the Emirati “Al -Abyad” in this match except winning, winning the three points, raising its score to 13 points, along with waiting Others’ gifts to keep his chances of qualifying for the World Cup, and if he stumbled, his chances will diminish, even through the appendix.

The last loss of the national team against Iran with two clean goals that led to its departure from the second place that qualified directly to the World Cup, by six points from the Uzbek team, which raised its score to 16 points, but he hopes to restore its superiority, in the hope that the results of other teams in this round will serve him today, if the Uzbek team stumbles in front of its leaders, the Iranian leader, as well as Qatar against Kyrgyzstan.

The “Al-Abyad” match today, which is run by the Saudi referee Mohammed Al-Huwaish, will not be in any way, although theoretically faces a modest team, such as the North Korean team, which is the group’s ranking with only two points, but despite its late ranking, the Korean team sometimes plays fiercely, as it appeared in the first leg last October, during which it was imposed on “Al-Abyad” a 1-1 tie, during which the team was lost. Two precious points in the qualification race to the World Cup, and for this, the team players are required today to fight on the field until the last minute of the match in order to win, and in anticipation of any surprises.

This match also represents a new challenge to the coach, Portuguese Paulo Pinto, to correct the team’s course and restore its balance again.

The Iranian team leads the group ranking with 19 points, and Uzbekistan is second with 16 points, and the UAE third with 10 points, beating Qatar “Fourth” by goal difference, and Kyrgyzstan comes fifth with three points, and North Korea is only six points.

It is expected that the coach of the Portuguese Paulo Pinto will make some changes in the national team, whether in the way of playing or in the starting lineup that will play the match, especially at the level of defense and attack, in the light of the defensive gaps and negatives that accompanied the performance in the previous match against Iran, and the team’s basic list witnesses the return of player Marcus Meloni, who was absent from the last match due to warnings.

The team’s mission left for Riyadh yesterday, after the team ended a short camp in the Jabal Ali area in Dubai, as coach Paulo Pinto worked during the recent training to address the mistakes and negatives revealed by the Iran match.

Al -Abyad concluded his preparations for the match by performing his main training yesterday, in Riyadh.

On the other hand, the North Korean team, despite suffering a great loss against Qatar with five goals against a goal in the last round, is playing this match without psychological pressure on its players, after it came out of the accounts of the direct qualification of the World Cup.

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