Iran meet Saudi Arabia in WAFF championship

PFDC – KUWAIT CITY, Iran have been drawn alongside archrivals Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Yemen in group B of the sixth edition of the WAFF championship which will take place in Kuwait in December.

Group A consists of hosts and title holders Kuwait, Oman, Lebanon and Palestine whereas group C only feature three teams – Iraq, Jordan and Syria.

While Saudi Arabia will participate for the first time, Qatar and UAE pulled out of the competition. Iran are record title holders with four wins. Iraq and Kuwait have won the competition once each.

Only the group winners and the best second placed team will advance to the semifinal stage of the Cup, which will take place from December 8-20.

The tournament usually features the A team players, but Iran frequently uses a depleted or younger squad, also due to the tournament taking place outside the FIFA calendar.

Carlos Queiroz already had vowed to use the WAFF championship to test some alternatives to the fixed Team Melli players, but it will be interesting how experimental the squad will be considering the stiff competition.

Saudi Arabia are in a deep crisis after bowing out of the 2011 Asian Cup with zero points out of three matches and were eleiminated prematurely in World Cup qualification earlier this year and certainly will not take this tournament easy.

Also Bahrain still have an open bill with Iran after being demolished 0-6 in Tehran and conceding an injury time equalizer in Manama in World Cup qualifiers last year, results which led to the Persian Gulf island’s elimination from the competition.

The match between Iran and Saudi Arabia will also be the meeting of coaches Carlos Queiroz and Frank Rijkaard, who already met in the Spanish ‘Classico’ as coaches of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona in 2003/04, each winning the away game 2-1.