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The Saudi national team is seeking to make a perfect start in its first official match under the leadership of the Italian Roberto Mancini, who took over the technical leadership from the Frenchman Hervé Renard, when it hosts the Pakistan national team in the first round of the second stage of the joint Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup and the 2027 Asian Cup.

The Saudi “Green” is looking for a victory that has been absent since the 2022 Qatar World Cup, when it met Argentina and achieved a historic victory that was considered one of the most prominent surprises of the World Cup.

The Saudi national team will miss the services of its most prominent player, Salem Al-Dosari, who was crowned the best player in Asia, after he left the Al-Ahsa camp due to his inability to participate in the matches against Pakistan and Jordan, as he suffered an injury during his team’s match, Al-Hilal, against Al-Taawoun in the Saudi League.

Al-Dosari is one of the pillars on which the Saudi “Green” relies in its matches during the recent period, as he has ideal solutions at the level of collective performance or even at the level of individual solutions.

In his latest list, Mancini chose a number of young names to participate for the first time with the Saudi national team. Talal Haji, who will be the second youngest player in the history of the Saudi national team if he participates in the match against Pakistan or Jordan, will attend next Tuesday.

The “Green” team began preparing for the joint Asian qualifiers, which qualifies for the 2026 World Cup, since last September, when it held a training camp in the city of Newcastle and played two friendly matches against Costa Rica, which it lost by three goals to one, before it also lost to South Korea by a goal.

The team resumed its preparation trip, and held a camp last October in the Portuguese city of Lagos. This camp witnessed changes in the roster of Italian Mancini, and the circle of names chosen for the camp expanded compared to those who attended in September.

But the team was far from tasting victory, as it met Nigeria and came out tied with a positive result (two goals for each), before returning and losing to Mali by three goals to one.

Since the Qatar World Cup, the Saudi “Green” has played 6 matches. Including two matches under the leadership of former coach Hervé Renard, last March against Bolivia and Venezuela, and 4 matches under the leadership of Mancini, but he came out tied in one match and lost 5 matches.

The number that the Saudi “Green” came out with in its successive friendly matches calls for concern before entering the upcoming battles. The most important of which is the Asian Cup, which Qatar will host next January, in addition to the qualifiers for the next World Cup.

But historically, the numbers recorded by “Al-Akhdar” at the beginning of his career in the qualifiers provide more reassurance, as he did not lose in the 12 matches he played in the first round of the World Cup qualifiers since the 1978 World Cup qualifiers, and during these matches he won 10 matches and recorded only two draws without any loss.

The Italian Mancini is betting on the capabilities possessed by the Saudi “Green” to achieve the first victories under his leadership, and to snatch the three points from the confrontation with Pakistan, which is the first that brings the two countries together in an official or friendly manner.

Mancini had announced a list of 27 players to join the Al-Ahsa camp, a list that was surprising as a number of experienced names left out, and Mancini relied on young and promising names who were attending for the first time on the national team’s roster.

Commander Salman Al-Faraj, who has been suffering from a recent injury, was out of Mancini’s options, in addition to Abdullah Al-Khaibari. As for Firas Al-Braikan, Sultan Al-Ghannam, Muhammad Kanno, Fahd Al-Mawlid, and Abdullah Al-Hamdan, they were excluded from the coach’s accounts after they appeared on the lists of the September and October camps.

The list included the goalkeeper quartet, Mohammed Al Owais, Nawaf Al Aqidi, Raghed Al Najjar, and the young goalkeeper Hamed Youssef.

As for the defense line, Yasser Al-Shahrani, Walid Al-Ahmad, Aoun Al-Saluli, Ali Al-Bulaihi, Abdul-Ilah Al-Omari, Hassan Timbukti, Saud Abdul-Hamid, Moaz Faqihi, and Hassan Kadesh were present, and in the middle of the field, there were Mukhtar Ali, Abdul-Ilah Al-Maliki, Ali Hazazi, Eid Al-Mawlid, Abdul-Ilah Hawsawi, Faisal Al-Ghamdi, and Abbas Al-Hassan. Abdul Rahman Gharib and Khaled Al-Ghannam.

As for the front, Saleh Al-Shehri continued to attend, and next to him was the young trio Muhammad Maran, Abdullah Radif and Talal Haji.

It is noteworthy that the Saudi “Green” is in the seventh group, which includes alongside it the teams of Jordan, Pakistan and Tajikistan.

In the same group, the Jordanian national team appears to have a great opportunity to return with three points against its host, Tajikistan, on Thursday, at the Central Republican Stadium in the capital, Dushanbe.

The “Nashama” team aspires to reach the World Cup finals for the first time in its history, benefiting from the increase in the Asian continent’s share, according to the new amendments, to 8 and a half seats.

Jordanian football fans are awaiting the national team’s first official appearance, led by Moroccan coach Hussein Amouta, before hosting its Saudi counterpart, on Tuesday, at Amman International Stadium.

Amouta led “Al-Nashama” in 4 friendly matches during which he failed to achieve victory. He lost to Norway 0-6, Azerbaijan and Iran with the same score 1-2, and tied with Iraq 1-1 before losing on penalties (3-5).

In the first group, the Qatari team will host its Afghan guest at Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, while the Kuwaiti team will host its Indian counterpart at Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium.

Qatar is looking forward to an ideal start, hoping to snatch the nomination ticket and record its second appearance in the World Cup after its first participation as host of the last edition of the World Cup in 2022.

The Kuwaiti team appears to be a candidate on paper to pass the opening leg of the qualifiers successfully, but India is no longer that easy prey for its peers in the “yellow continent,” and the best evidence of that is its victory over Kuwait itself, albeit on penalty kicks 4-5 after a 1-1 in 4 draw. Last June in the final of the South Asian Gold Cup tournament hosted by the city of Bangalore.

In the second group, Syria raises the slogan of victory against North Korea in the city of Jeddah, western Saudi Arabia, where it plays its home matches.

In Group Six, Iraq faces its guest, Indonesia, at Basra Stadium, while Vietnam faces the Philippines.

The Iraqi national team is counting on the promising top scorer in the Iraqi league, Ali Jassim, who led his team, Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya, to a historic victory over Al-Ittihad Saudi Arabia, 2-0, in the AFC Champions League.

In Group Eight, the UAE begins its journey with an easy confrontation on paper when it hosts Nepal at Al Maktoum Stadium at Al Nasr Club in Dubai, while the Bahraini national team faces a difficult confrontation against its Yemeni counterpart.

The match will be the first official match for the Emirates under the supervision of its Portuguese coach, Paulo Pinto (54 years old), who was appointed in July as a replacement for Argentine Rodolfo Aruabarena.

“Al-Abyad” did not lose in the three friendly matches it played under Pinto’s leadership, defeating Costa Rica 4-1, Kuwait 1-0, and Lebanon 2-1.

Bahrain will play against Yemen at the King Abdulaziz Sports City Stadium in the Saudi city of Abha.

Bahrain had qualified for the final continental play-off to the 2006 and 2010 World Cups, respectively, but it did not achieve its dream of reaching the global finals after losing to Trinidad and Tobago in 2005 and then New Zealand in 2009.

The Yemen national team is led by Czech coach Miroslav Skup, who previously led the Bahrain national team.

In Group Nine, strong Australia faces Bangladesh, while Lebanon hosts its Palestinian counterpart in Sharjah, UAE.

According to the new qualifying system after Asia’s places in the World Cup were increased, the winner and the runner-up qualify for the final stage, which witnesses the presence of 18 teams divided into three groups, of which the winner and runner-up officially qualify for the World Cup finals, while the third and fourth place finishers qualify for the Asian playoff qualifiers.