Saudi National Team’s Frustration Grows After Draw with Bahrain in World Cup Qualifiers: Al-Dosari Under Fire

Dragan Talajic, the coach of the Bahrain national team, poured gasoline on the fire of criticism aimed at the star of the Saudi national team, Salem Al-Dosari, as he was the key to returning home with a draw from Al-Akhdar in Jeddah in the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.

The Saudi public reached the height of their anger at the team’s results after the defeat to Japan and the disappointing draw with Bahrain in the last two rounds, notably leaving with just two points from the three games held in Saudi Arabia The Al Hilal star received the lion’s share of the wrath for missing two penalty kicks against Indonesia and Bahrain, until… that One of the media asked him to resign internationally.

Talajic did not address the missed penalty from Al-Dosari, but explained that the success of the Bahraini players in stopping Al-Akhdar’s offensive threat was reduced by half, describing his ‘ player as half of the strength of the Saudi national team.

He said, according to what was reported by the Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadiya, regarding his secret plan to get a point from Jeddah, “There is no secret plan of the strength of the Saudi national team, and this is what we did, and we did the players put in a lot of effort during the game.”

The Croatian coach disagreed with his Italian coach, Roberto Mancini, the Saudi coach, regarding his speech about the candidates to qualify Japan directly to the finals of the 2026 World Cup, where he said, “
Mancini said the competition for second place is between Australia and Saudi Arabia, but we have just seen China win, and also Bahrain’s draw, and this shows the strength of competition from everyone. “