Yasser Al-Qahtani Criticizes Roberto Mancini’s Tactics Following Saudi Arabia’s 2-0 Defeat to Japan in World Cup Qualifiers

Yasser Al-Qahtani, who was the top scorer for the Saudi national team and the Al-Hilal club, opened fire on the Italian Roberto Mancini, the coach of Al-Akhdar. After falling to Japan.

Saudi Arabia lost (0-2) to the Japanese team, yesterday afternoon, Thursday, in the third round of the group stage, in the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.

Al-Qahtani, when analyzing the match on the beIN Sports network, praised the level of the Saudi stars and their fight on the field, against one of the strongest teams, despite the poor quality Mancini, who described him as “the blacksmith who has jewels in his hand.”

He said: “In the first 45 minutes and the beginning of the second half, the Saudi team was putting strong pressure on the Japanese, and attacking the opponent in their own half.

Al-Qahtani pointed out that the Saudi national team was making excellent attacks and moving the ball from the right and left sides, depending on the style of play that the players like. Referring to the “4-2-3-1” plan.

Yasser Al-Qahtani revealed that at that time, Machini made tactical changes to the range, and returned to what he called the “sterile old style”. In reference to the “3-5-2” or “4-5-1” method.

The former top scorer of the Saudi national team asked the Italian coach: He said: “Don’t you like that the team played well and were close to winning?!”, as the coach stopped the players from defeating Japan.

Al-Qahtani did not stop there; He returned and described Mancini as a “rookie coach”. This is because he did not ask his players to waste time, even preparing the “substitute” Abdullah Al-Khaibari, who was preparing to replace the injured Abdullah Al-Maliki.

Al-Qahtani finished his statements: By saying: “Mancini started talking to his staff, instead of directing his players to waste time until Al- Khibari down, which the Japanese team took advantage of, and scored the second goal from a corner kick.

It is worth noting that the Saudi national team fell to “third place” in the position of the third group in the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, with a difference of 5 points from the “leader” Japan.