Oman and Bahrain qualified for the Gulf final after the expulsion of “psychological pressure”

The coach of the Bahraini Al-Shabab Club, Ali Abdul Majeed, confirmed that the nominations of analysts, polls and the media put psychological pressure on most of the teams participating in the “Gulf 26” tournament held in Kuwait, especially the teams of the Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, which were strong candidates to win the title before the start of the tournament, compared to their technical levels in the tournament. Qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, in complete contrast to the Bahrain and Oman teams, which entered the competition with fewer nominations, but they They reached the final match scheduled for tomorrow.

Abdul Majeed told Emirates Today: “The Bahraini Red coach, the Croatian Dragan Talajic, acted wisely, exploited these circumstances and planned well, in cooperation with the Bahraini Football Association and the clubs, which led to preparing a team capable of competing strongly, to present distinguished matches in ( Gulf 26), and reaching the final match with his Omani brother.

He explained: “Coach Talajic did not rule out any player in the Bahraini league capable of supporting the team, as evidenced by the fact that he included Ismail Abdul Latif even though he is 38 years old, due to his conviction of the importance of experienced players in Gulf tournaments,” stressing that “most of the previous Gulf tournaments confirmed that winning In the tournament, the player needs experience and a fan player.”

Abdul Majeed touched on the exit of the Emirati “White” and the Saudi “Green” from the Gulf Championship, saying: “The Emirati and Saudi national teams were affected by the pressure of local matches, and also by the wide participation in the Asian Elite League in its two categories and the Gulf Championship, in contrast to the Bahraini and Omani national teams, and a large number of Bahraini players arrived.” To the stage of football maturity, which gave coach Talajic plenty of room to choose the best.”

He explained that “the media nominations and the opinions of observers that were based on the results of the World Cup qualifiers were not very favorable to Bahrain, which relieved them of psychological pressure and raised the level of focus, in contrast to other teams that were nominated in the media, including the UAE, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, which negatively affected the path to the World Cup.”

Regarding the Emirati team, he said: “I do not know the secret behind the exclusion of the top scorer, Ali Mabkhout, and the playmaker, Ali Saleh, from the Emirati (White) team by the Portuguese coach, Paulo Bento.”

He added: “I expect a strong return for (Al-Abyad) in the upcoming World Cup qualifying matches, so that it can reach the World Cup, based on benefiting from the lessons of participation in (Gulf 26), and the same applies to the Bahraini national team, which still has a chance, and winning the championship will support it a lot.” ».

He concluded: “Technical reasons other than psychological pressure were present, and affected the chances of most of the Gulf teams that participated in the tournament to reach the semi-finals, including the UAE team, which was affected by the unexpected defensive mistakes that were committed and lost the opportunity to qualify, including the penalty kick that player Fabio missed.” Lima in the last seconds of the match against Oman.

. I expect a strong return for the Emirati “Al-Abyad” in the upcoming World Cup qualifiers.

. Bahrain player Ismail Abdul Latif reached 38 years old, but coach Talajic preferred to benefit from his experience.