Our Olympic team will kick off its AFC U-23 Cup campaign on Friday when it faces Tajikistan in Group D at the Lokomotiv Stadium in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Al-Akhdar are in Group D along with the UAE, Japan and Tajikistan.
Saudi Arabia qualified to the final after being one of the runners-up in qualifying and lost 3 points to Kuwait after beating Bangladesh 3-0 and losing 1-2 to leaders Kuwait.
Al Akhdar are trying to find a head start today in their search for an unparalleled achievement in the league, especially after our team was twice unlucky to win the title.
Al Akhdar was not lucky enough to win the title as he lost twice in the final, the first was in 2014 against Iraq 0-1 and the same thing happened again against South Korea in 2020 and he was eliminated in the first round. in 2016 and 2018, and this time he hopes to achieve an unprecedented achievement in Uzbekistan 2022.
Our team is counting on a number of players who have played in the first team logo, namely Saud Abdul Hameed, Firas Al Braikan, Hassan Timbukti, as well as having good elements such as Ayman Yahya, Haytham Asiri, Waleed Al Ahmad and others under under the leadership of national coach Saad Al-Shehri.
On the other hand, Tajikistan is playing its first Asian adventure in this forum as it qualified for this tournament for the first time as one of the top runners-up teams as it finished second behind Iran in Group B with 6 points out of two wins over Lebanon 1-0 and over Nepal 6.-0 and slightly lost to the leader with a difference of three goals to two.
The Tajikistan national team is technically led by coach Mobin Argachev and aims to play a prominent role in Group D after achieving the dream of reaching the AFC Under-23 Cup final.