90 minutes separate the UAE from the 2026 World Cup

The national football team stands on the cusp of a major and long-awaited achievement, as it is only 90 minutes away from qualifying for the World Cup finals for the second time in its history, which it will play at 21:15 this evening, against the Qatari national team at Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in Doha.

“White” enters the confrontation in a relatively comfortable position, as it has two chances to qualify, either winning or drawing with any result, thus ensuring that it maintains the top spot in its group in the Asian playoff that qualifies for the World Cup.

The national team leads the first group with three points, achieved by its exciting victory over the Omani team 2-1, in a match that showed improved performance in the second half under the leadership of Romanian coach Olario Cosmin.

The Qatari team’s task seems more difficult, as it enters the match without half-time solutions after its goalless draw against Oman, which makes it forced to win tonight’s match if it wants to continue its path to the World Cup.

The Omani national team will be present as an observer of the outcome of the confrontation, which it hopes will be in the interest of Al-Abyad, and that the latter will achieve a victory with two clean goals to ensure second place in the group, and then its hope of reaching the World Cup finals will be renewed.

The two teams that occupy second place in the two Asian playoff groups will have to face off in two “back-and-forth” matches during the month of November, to determine the winner who will join the final global playoff qualifier for the World Cup.

The national team relies heavily on the experience of coach Kuzmin, who led Al-Abyad to achieve a valuable victory in the last round, after he made decisive tactical adjustments between the two halves of the match against Oman, which contributed to improving the team’s performance in the second half, and turned the result around with a well-deserved victory.

It is expected that the national team’s lineup will witness some minor changes, which may include the players who participated in the second half of the Oman match, specifically the trio: Yahya Nader, Ali Saleh, and Hareb Abdullah, whose entry played an effective role in the last victory.

It is likely that the left winger, Yahya Al-Ghassani, will be absent from the squad, who was injured in the previous match and was forced to leave the field, and Ali Saleh took his place.

Al-Ghassani showed a high fighting spirit by confirming his willingness to play, even with one leg, in order to help the team qualify for the World Cup. He said in press statements: “I trust the abilities of my teammates to achieve what is required in the Qatar match. “We have a huge morale boost to return home with a qualification card for the World Cup.”

The Emirati fans, who wrote a great epic by marching behind their country’s national team to Doha, hope that the Cosmin battalion will continue its rising performance and complete the mission successfully, giving Emirati football a long-awaited joy for nearly 35 years.

• Doubts about Yahya Al-Ghassani’s participation after suffering an injury in the Oman match.

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