Helio Sousa leads Kuwait training session.

DOHA, Nov 24: Jassim bin Hamad Stadium at Al-Sadd Club in Doha will host Kuwait as it faces Mauritania at 4:00 p.m. today in the Arab Cup qualifying playoff.

Also in today’s playoff fixtures, Palestine takes on Libya at 7:00 p.m., while Syria faces South Sudan at the same time. Tomorrow, the remaining playoff matches will see Bahrain against Djibouti, Oman versus Somalia, Yemen facing Comoros, and Lebanon against Sudan.

Seven teams from the playoff stage will advance to join the nine automatically qualified teams in the group stage: Qatar, Tunisia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Algeria, and Iraq.

Tonight’s match serves as the first official test for Kuwait under Portuguese coach Helio Sousa, who joined the team last August on a two-year contract, succeeding Argentine coach Juan Pizzi. Kuwait aims to make its mark in this edition after missing the previous tournament, where they were eliminated by Bahrain 2-0 in the playoff.

The team’s preparations began in September, starting with a 2-2 draw against Syria, followed by back-to-back losses to Uzbekistan and Morocco B (0-2 and 0-1) in October. A final training camp was held in Cairo earlier this month, where Kuwait secured a 4-3 victory over Tanzania and drew 2-2 with Gambia.

Sousa named a 23-man squad for the playoffs: Saud Al-Hoshan, Khaled Al-Rashidi, Suleiman Abdulghafour, Hassan Hamdan, Fahad Al-Hajri, Rashid Al-Dosari, Moath Al-Dhafiri, Nasser Khadr, Mohammed Al-Shuraifi, Khaled Sabah, Abdulwahab Al-Awadhi, Nasser Faleh, Athbi Shehab, Ahmed Al-Dhafiri, Fawaz Ayedh, Sultan Al-Enezi, Reda Hani, Moath Al-Asaim’a, Mohammed Dahham, Eid Al-Rashidi, Youssef Majid, Youssef Nasser, and Shabib Al-Khaldi.

Predicting Sousa’s starting lineup is challenging, as he made significant changes to the teams that faced Tanzania and Gambia in friendlies.

Mauritania, coached by Spaniard Aritz López Garai, also hopes to advance despite missing several foreign-based players, relying primarily on talents from their domestic league.

By Khaled Al-Enezi

Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff