2024-25 Gulf Cup

The 26th Gulf Cup kicks off today in Kuwait. Iraq are the current holders and the 2 were kept apart in the draw.

Group A:
Kuwait
Qatar
UAE
Oman

Group B:
Iraq
Saudi Arabia
Bahrain
Yemen

Group A kicks off today with Kuwait v Oman while Qatar plays UAE later tonight. Iraq v Yemen and Saudi Arabia v Bahrain is tomorrow. Group A looks very tight, wouldn't be surprised to see the hosts, ironically the most successful team in this tournament by some way, to not progress to the semifinals. Mind you, only one of Kuwait's 10 titles have come this millennium. The past couple of editions of this have seen some teams send experimental squads; however, Qatar are sending a very strong team, seems like Saudi Arabia are as well. I don't really know enough about the other teams to say, but seems like UAE are also bringing their first team so this could be an interesting tournament with all these teams other than Yemen qualified for the final Asian WC qualifying round...

 

First round results:

Group A:
Kuwait 1-1 Oman
Qatar 1-1 UAE

Group B:
Iraq 1-0 Yemen
Saudi Arabia 2-3 Bahrain

All in the balance in group A, Group B meanwhile had a real shocker with Bahrain surprising Saudi in what was the tournament's best match so far. Meanwhile, holders Iraq struggled against lowly Yemen who are still yet to win a game in this tournament.

Next fixtures are today and tomorrow:

Group A:
Kuwait v Qatar
UAE v Oman

Group B:
Bahrain v Iraq
Yemen v Saudi Arabia

 

Upsets galore on the 2nd match day.

Group A:
Oman 2-1 Qatar
UAE 1-2 Kuwait

Group B:
Yemen 2-3 Saudi Arabia
Bahrain 2-0 Iraq

Don't think those were the expected results in any of those matches other than Saudi beating Yemen, but the way they had to do it - coming back from 2 goals down is pretty surprising. Bahrain through to the semis while Saudi and Iraq will battle it out in the final group game, with the latter needing to progress. Kuwait v Qatar and UAE v Oman is actually the final game in this group. If results go as expected, we could see a group with all 4 teams tied on 4 points. Otherwise, looks like the 2 underdogs could pip the current Asian champions and UAE, the most in form team in the group.

 

Yep - a bit of a surprise in Group A with the 2 teams I think less likely going through... and a huge shoutout to Yemen, their first ever win in the Gulf Cup after 36 tries... a 2-1 v Bahrain. Mabrook Yemen!