Victory is the only option for “White” against Kyrgyzstan

At 20:15 pm today, at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium at Al Jazira Club, the national football team will play an important and fateful confrontation against its guest, the Kyrgyz national team, in the fifth round for Group A in the third round of qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.

The match represents a new challenge and test for the team, and for its Portuguese coach Paulo Bento, in the possibility of the team regaining its true image, after the recent negative results, and maintaining its chances of competing for a qualification ticket to the World Cup, despite the widening of the points difference between it and the leader of the standings to six full points.

The team enters this match in a bad position, as it occupies third place after its score froze at only four points, following the recent loss to Uzbekistan with a clean goal in the fourth round, and any result other than victory will weaken its chances of competing for one of the two direct qualification tickets to the World Cup.

The Iranian team currently leads the group standings with 10 points, on goal difference from the Uzbek team, which is in second place. The Qatari team is fourth with four points, Kyrgyzstan is fifth with three points, and North Korea is in last place with two points.

In the same group, North Korea will meet today with its Iranian counterpart, and Uzbekistan will be the guest of the Qatari team.

Historically, this is the third match between the UAE and Kyrgyzstan, as they met for the first time in the round of 16 in the 2019 Asian Cup, which was held in the UAE, and ended with the Whites winning 3-2, while the second confrontation was held in December of last year, and ended with the team also winning by a goal. clean.

During this match, Al-Abyad hopes to achieve several goals, most notably gaining points in the match, reaching the seventh point, and enhancing its chances in the competition, in addition to appearing in a different way from the one in which it appeared in its last matches, especially its match against Uzbekistan, in addition to the fact that the team seeks to reconcile its fans, After the humble image he showed in his last matches.

Although the team had started its journey in the tournament with a strong start by defeating its counterpart, the Qatari team, by three goals to one, it faltered in the last three rounds.

The match comes after a series of negative results for the team, since the second round in which it lost to its guest, the Iranian team, with a clean goal, while it tied in the third round against its guest, North Korea, before losing to its host, the Uzbekistan team, in the fourth round.

Yesterday, Al-Abyad conducted its final training at the New York University Stadium in Abu Dhabi, where the technical staff was assured of the technical, physical and mental readiness of its players to play the match.

Although facing the “Whites” against a team like Kyrgyzstan is easy in theory, in practice it is difficult, especially since the latter had achieved a valuable victory in its last match against North Korea with a clean goal.

The Portuguese national team coach, Paulo Bento, is betting on the ground staff and the audience, in addition to his existing elements and winning cards.

The player Abdullah Hamad will be absent from the team in this match, as he received a red card in the team’s last match against Uzbekistan, as well as the player Ali Saleh due to the injury he recently suffered.

On the other hand, the Kyrgyz national team, led by Russian coach Maxim Lysyn, concluded its preparations for the match, after training yesterday at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, and before that, it participated in a short preparatory camp in Doha.

The Kyrgyz national team currently occupies fifth place with three points, which it achieved by defeating the North Korean national team with a clean goal, and lost to Iran with a clean goal in the first round, and also lost to Uzbekistan and Qatar in the second and third rounds.

The match between Uzbekistan and Qatar is the crossroads of the group

The match between Uzbekistan and Qatar is a crossroads in the first group, because the victory of the Qatari team will scatter the group’s cards, and open the door for the “white” team to renew its hopes of competing for the second place that qualifies directly for the World Cup, if it serves itself by defeating Kyrgyzstan, as the difference between the national team will decrease. And Uzbekistan are down to only three points, while Uzbekistan’s victory means a continuation of the six-point difference between them, provided that “White” wins today’s match.