Saudi Arabia: matches, team and player to watch at the 2022 World Cup

Neighboring host nation Qatar, Saudi Arabia is approaching this World Cup on familiar ground and can count on the experience of its French coach, Hervé Renard. From a sporting point of view, even if she performed well in qualifying, the final stages seem difficult given her group.

Story

The main supplier of the selection, the Saudi club Al-Hilal, won the last Asian Champions League.

The form

Among the Petits Poucets of this World Cup, Saudi Arabia can nonetheless harbor ambition given its successful qualifying campaign in which it lost only once. First in her group, ahead of Japan and Australia, she continued to progress with the arrival of Herve Renard in 2019. The French coach, who has already led Morocco to the 2018 World Cup, relies almost exclusively on players from the local league and can count on a solid midfielder. He had six friendly matches between October and November to hone his starting XI.

List of 26 Featured Players

There was doubt about the presence of the captain of this selection, led by Herve Renard. Salman Al-Faraj, who suffered a shoulder injury against Iceland in the last qualifying match, will hold onto his World Cup spot well. Feature of the list: Striker Fahad Al-Muwallad, who was selected first, was fired for doping. Among these 26 other players, none are developing in Europe. Al-Hilal, winners of the last Asian Champions League, have placed 13 of their players on this list.

• Guardians: Mohamed Al-Owais (Al-Hilal), Nawaf Al-Aqidi (Al-Nasr), Mohamed Al-Yami (Al-Ahli)
• Defenders: Yasser Al-Shahrani (Al-Hilal), Ali Al-Bulaikhi (Al-Hilal), Abdullah Al-Amri (Al-Nasr), Abdullah Madu (Al-Nasr), Hasan Tambakti (Al-Shabaab), Sultan Al-Ghanam (Al-Nasr), Mohammed Al-Breik (Al-Hilal), Saud Abdulhamid (Al-Hilal)
• Environment: Salman Al-Faraj (Al-Hilal), Riyad Sharahili (Abha), Ali Al-Hasan (Al-Nasr), Mohamed Kanno (Al-Hilal), Abdulela Al-Malki (Al-Hilal), Sami Al-Najeei (Al -Hilal) -Nasr), Abdullah Otaif (Al-Hilal), Nasser Al-Dawsari (Al-Hilal), Abdulrahman Al-Aboud (Ittihad), Salem Al-Dawsari (Al-Hilal), Hattan Bahebri (Al-Shabaab)
• Forwards: Nawaf Al-Abed (Al-Hilal), Haytham Asiri (Al-Ahli), Saleh Al-Shehri (Al-Hilal), Firas Al-Buraikan (Al-Fateh)

Likely composition

Saudi Arabia very rarely deviates from their 4-3-3 formation, allowing their Al Hilal midfield pairing Mohamed Kanno and Salman Al Faraj to come into their own. At the top is young Al-Fateh striker Firas Al-Buraikan, who should support Salem Al-Dawsari and Hattan Bahebri.

Player to watch: Salman Al-Dawsari

His last-minute goal saw Saudi Arabia exit the 2018 World Cup with a 2-1 victory over Egypt. In Qatar, Salam Al-Dawsari should once again become one of his country’s main attacking assets. Al Hilal’s versatile left winger is used to playing a decisive role at club level (9 goals and 5 assists last year). Unlike most of his teammates, he has European football experience, having spent six months at Villarreal in 2018.

Schedule of matches in Saudi Arabia

Refer to the profile of all teams on the main page. In particular, from group C, namely from Argentina, Mexico and Poland.