Doha, November 10 (QNA) – The Saudi national will take part in FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 hoping to replicate their achievement of 1994, when they reached the last-16 during their first-ever World Cup.
Saudi Arabia is making its sixth appearance in the World Cup. It previously featured in 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2018. Their best performance was in 1994 when they reached the second round after defeating Belgium with Said Al Owairans fantastic solo effort, before losing to Sweden 1 3 in the last-16.
The Saudi team was drawn in Group C along with Argentina, Mexico and Poland, they will start the first the World Cup in the Arab World against Argentina on Nov. 22 at Lusail Stadium, then Poland on Nov. 26 at Education City Stadium, and then against Mexico on Nov. 30 At Lusail Stadium.
The Saudi Arabia Football Federation chose Sealine Beach Resort as the national team’s base during the World Cup. The team will train at Sealine Stadium.
The Saudi team is one of the Arab teams participating in the World Cup. Saudi Arabia is level with Tunisia and Morocco in terms of appearances in the World Cup, making it the Arab team from Asia with the highest participations. Only South Korea and Japan from Asia have taken part in the World Cup more times than Saudi Arabia.
Thanks to the competition taking place in Qatar, Saudi Arabia will find strong support from the fans, which could help the team go far in the competition.
The Saudi team is in hot form, having collected 23 points during the Asian qualifiers in a strong group that included both Japan and Australia. The team won seven times, drew twice, and lost only once.
The Saudi team will rely on a host of stars who have participated in the 2018 edition in Russia, led by Salem Al Dosari who scored in back then, as well as goalkeeper Mohammad Al Owais, and left-back Yasser Al Shahrani. The trio form the backbone of the team.
Saudi Arabias first match in the competition, against Argentina, will be a difficult encounter but one the Saudi team is more than ready for. The first-ever World Cup match was against the Netherlands. Despite their inexperience, Saudi Arabia took the lead in that match with a Fouad Anwar header. They made the match extremely difficult for the Dutch side before eventually losing 1-2.
Their second match, against Morocco, saw Saudi Arabia get its first-ever World Cup win. After that they faced Belgium when Said Al Owairan scored a World Cup classic that saw Saudi Arabia reach the last-16.
After this historic achievement, the Saudi national team qualified for the World Cup finals 5 more times, but never got past the group stages.
The Saudi national team has played a total of 16 World Cup matches. Their record is three wins, two draws, and 11 losses. They scored 11 goals and conceded 35.
The national team also participated in the Confederations Cup four times, during which they managed to finish second in 1992.
On the continental level, the Saudi team managed to win the Asian title three times in 1984, 1988, 1996, the Arab Championship in 1998 and 2002, and the Gulf Cup in 1994, 2002 and 2003.
Majed Abdullah is considered one of Saudi Arabias best-ever players. He is the teams all-time goal scorers with 72 goals in 117 matches. Goalkeeper Mohammed Al Deayea is the most capped player in the history of the national team, having played 173 matches.
Sami Al Jaber is their World Cup all-time goal scorer with three goals. Said Al Owairans goal has also been voted as one of the best 10 goals in the World Cups history.
(QNA)