Muscat, June 10
Oman national football team ended their second preparatory match against New Zealand on a goalless draw on Thursday night at Education City Stadium in Doha. With the conclusion of the second friendly fixture, Red Warriors concluded their external warm up camp in Doha which lasted for 15 days. The camp was part of the team’s preparations for the forthcoming assignments at Arabian Gulf Cup in Basra city, and 2023 AFC Asian Cup while New Zealand is gearing up to take on Costa Rica in the World Cup playoff on Tuesday.
The Croatian coach, Branko Ivankovic, head coach of Oman team began the match with a starting line up comprised from Ibrahim al Mukhaini as the goalkeeper. The experienced defender Mohammed al Musallami led the defending line besides Juma al Habsi, Ahmed al Kaabi and Ahmed al Khamisi. The fourth centralised players including Harib al Saadi, Arshad al Alawi, Salah al Yahyaei and Jameel al Yahmadi (Yazeed al Mashaani) monitored the middle line. Strikers Omar al Malki and Mohsin al Ghassani (Issam al Subhi) were in the forwarding line.
During the match duration of 90 minutes, both teams could not translate the scoring attempts into goals. The international friendly acted as opportunity for both team head coaches on the team’s shapes ahead of the forthcoming events. Oman team had played their first international friendly encounter in Doha’s camp against Nepal and managed to end the game on a 2-0 win on June 3. Omar al Malki and Issam al Subhi scored the goals of national team.
The upcoming presence of the national team will be in August as they will gear up to take part in an international friendly tournament in Jordan in September.
The confirmed teams of the tournament till now are Oman, hosts Jordan, Iraq and a fourth team will be announced soon. Another camp will be scheduled for the national team in November in Dubai city which will feature a strong friendly match against Serbia, qualified team to the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022. Serbia will face World No 1 ranked team Brazil in Group G at the World Cup besides Switzerland and Cameroon.