Good news for the Iraqi fans before the World Cup match against Saudi Arabia

The coach of the Iraqi national team, Australian Graham Arnold, revealed good news to the Iraqi fans before the fateful confrontation against the Saudi national team tomorrow, Tuesday (23:30 UAE time) in Jeddah, to determine the identity of the team that officially qualifies for the 2026 World Cup finals.

Arnold said in the introductory press conference for the match: “The Iraqi national team’s top scorer, Ayman Hussein, will be ready to play the match,” after he had missed the previous match against the Indonesian national team last Saturday (1-0 to Iraq) due to his injury during his team’s Al-Karkh match against Erbil in the fourth round of the Iraq Stars League.

Arnold did not specify whether Ayman Hussein would start the match against Saudi Arabia or would be introduced in the second half. He also confirmed that striker Zidane Iqbal, who scored the goal in Iraq’s win over Indonesia, would also be ready to play the confrontation and would be relied upon for his scoring abilities.

The Iraqi team only needs to win over its Saudi counterpart to ensure qualification for the World Cup, while a draw would lead to the Green team being ahead on goal difference, after the Saudi team had beaten Indonesia 3-2 in the first match, meaning that Saudi Arabia has three goals compared to one for Iraq.