Muscat: Salim Said Al Wahaibi, Chairman of Oman Football Association (OFA), expressed his delight over the national team’s entry into the quarters of the FIFA Arab Cup following their great performance in the match against Bahrain, which ended in a 3-0 victory for Oman.
He said that the team will face Tunisia for a place in the semi-finals. “We are aware of the technical skills of the players of the national team of Tunisia, but we are quite confident that our team will perform well as they did during the earlier part of the championship. We hope the team will continue with the same spirit in order to qualify for the semi-finals,” he added.
Speaking on the Sultanate’s participation in the present edition of the FIFA Arab Cup 2021, he said that Qatar is set to organise 2022 FIFA World Cup and this event is part of the preparations for the showpiece tournament.
“We have seen strong Arab teams during the competitions,” he said, adding that qualification at each stage of the competition was not that easy. Oman national team qualified for the quarter-finals after winning their match against Bahrain 3-0 at Ahmed bin Ali Stadium last Tuesday.
Al Munther Al Alawi had scored goal in the 40th minute, Arshad Al Alawi in the 49th minute while Khalid Al Hajri had scored in the 59th minute for Oman.
However, the Oman team got the benefit from the result of the match between Qatar and Iraq, which was won by the Qatari team.
The Oman vs Tunisia match will be played on Friday at 7pm, Muscat time at the Education City Stadium in Doha. The two teams had played a friendly match in 2011, where Oman’s national team had defeated the Tunisian team 2-1. Both the goals were scored by Ahmed Kano while Sami Al Alaqi had scored for his team.
The Tunisian team has topped the second group with six points and Oman national team secured the second place in the first group with four points.
