JEDDAH: Regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran clash in a potentially explosive match today as both teams start the last qualifying stage for automatic places at the 2010 World Cup.
The Kingdom and Iran are in Group B along with South and North Korea and UAE. The five other teams in Group A namely East Asian power Japan, Australia, which joined the Asian Confederation after the 2006 World Cup, Uzbekistan, Qatar and Bahrain compete the final 10 cast in the Asian World Cup qualifiers.
The first two teams in each pool earn guaranteed berths in South Africa 2010. The two third-placed teams will face other for the right to take on Oceania’s representative — likely to be New Zealand — for a final shot at the World Cup.
Both sides were upbeat on the eve of the match at the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh.
Enjoying a home-field advantage, Saudi national team coach Naser Al-Johar said he is confident of winning against the Iranians. However, Al-Johar said he has much respect for Iran.
“I am sure that I will silence those who doubted my ability to lead the Saudi team. Every time I lead the team the stadium is full of fans. Tomorrow, the stadium will be full of cheering Saudis and I am positive that victory will be ours,” Al-Johar said on the eve of the match.
Midfielder Abdu Otaif urged Saudi fans to come to the stadium and cheer the Saudi team. “Fans are our strength in the match against Iran,” said Otaif. He added, “We prepared very good for the match and we are confident of winning. The win is going to be a strong boost in our quest to qualify. We are aiming at collecting the game three points and we will do the impossible to achieve it.”
Ali Daie, former Iran team striker and current coach, said that he is determined to score full three points against Saudi Arabia. He said that his team studied all the strong points of the Saudi players and that they are prepared to stop them.
He said that he Saudi team is strong having qualified four times in a row for the World Cup and they have a new team with young players.
“We studied the Saudi team perfectly and we will make sure to disable their strong points,” said Daie. “We came to Saudi Arabia to win.”
