{"id":408369,"date":"2026-04-04T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=408369"},"modified":"2026-04-02T14:44:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:44:54","slug":"arab-highlights-at-the-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/arab-highlights-at-the-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Arab highlights at the World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 The largest FIFA World Cup in history in terms of number of teams, 48, the tournament kicking off in June will also feature strong participation from Arab nations: eight teams. Among the highlights, Jordan will make its World Cup debut, Iraq returns to the competition after 40 years, and Egypt and Morocco face the challenge of confirming their teams\u2019 rise. Algeria and Jordan will meet in the group of the reigning world champion, Argentina, led by Lionel Messi. Below are the highlights and challenges for each Arab country in the tournament, which begins on June 11 in Mexico, one of the host countries alongside Canada and the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qatar<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Qatar did not take part in the latest round of FIFA<\/a>-organized friendlies at the end of March. Due to the conflict in the Middle East\u2014which directly affects Gulf countries\u2014the team\u2019s matches against Argentina and Serbia were canceled. Even without taking the field, the squad led by Spanish coach Julen Lopetegui continued training as usual. This will be Qatar\u2019s second appearance in a World Cup. The first came three and a half years ago, when the country hosted the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marrocos<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Morocco surprised the world by securing fourth place at the last World Cup, held in 2022 in Qatar. But the result was no fluke, as the country has been investing in player development and football. Proof of this is that Morocco will host the next World Cup, in 2030, alongside Portugal and Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Off the field, however, the team has been going through turbulent times: in a controversial match in January, Morocco finished as runner-up in the Africa Cup of Nations after losing to Senegal. The title was later awarded to Morocco in March because, at one point during the match, Senegal left the pitch, which constituted abandonment and a forfeit loss. Senegal refused to hand over the trophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, Morocco recently lost its head coach, Walid Regragui, who stepped down. He was replaced by Mohamed Ouahbi, who must now prepare the team led by star player Brahim D\u00edaz for its opening match against none other than Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Egypt<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"Salah,
Salah, star player for Liverpool and Egypt\u2019s national team, was absent from the most recent matches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In their two most recent friendlies, Egypt thrashed Saudi Arabia 4\u20130 and drew 0\u20130 with Spain. Both matches were played away from home and without the team\u2019s star, forward Mohamed Salah, who was injured. Led by Hossam Hassan, the side will make its fourth World Cup appearance this year\u2014having previously competed in 1934, 1990, and 2018. The standout from the last match was Egyptian goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir, who secured the draw against Spain. Before the World Cup begins, Egypt faces one more major test: a friendly against Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saudi Arabia<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The 4\u20130 defeat to Egypt on Friday (27) in Jeddah left head coach Herv\u00e9 Renard in a delicate position. Although his job was backed by the Saudi football federation, he failed to correct the team\u2019s mistakes in the following match, played on Tuesday (31). The Saudis were beaten 2\u20131 by Serbia, coming from behind. Despite officially remaining in charge, Renard has been linked with Ghana\u2019s national team less than three months before the World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iraq<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"Iraq
Iraq players celebrate qualification: The challenge now is to overcome one of the toughest groups in the World Cup<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After defeating Bolivia in the intercontinental playoff, Iraq secured the final spot in the tournament and must now prepare for a tough path ahead: it will face the world runner-up France, as well as Norway and Senegal. The team heads into the competition energized by its qualification, which marks only its second World Cup appearance in history\u2014the first was in 1986, in Mexico. One of the team\u2019s standout players is midfielder Zidane Iqbal, who is named after French star Zinedine Zidane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Algeria<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"Riyad
Riyad Mahrez (L) in a match against Uruguay: The country returns to the World Cup after eight years, buoyed by its recent results<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Algeria\u2019s national team has been absent from the World Cup since 2014, when it played in Brazil. It returns with the challenge of facing three-time world champion Argentina right in its opening match. In the friendlies leading up to the tournament, a 7\u20130 victory over Guatemala and a 0\u20130 draw against Uruguay lifted fans\u2019 spirits, who are counting on Riyad Mahrez to make the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jordan<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Jordan heads into its first-ever World Cup having lost only two matches in the Asian qualifiers. The team\u2019s strengths lie in defense and, especially, in attack. Even without two of its main forwards, Ali Olwan and Yazan Al-Naimat, the side secured 2\u20132 draws against Costa Rica and Nigeria in its most recent matches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tunisia<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Tunisia has a new head coach: Sabri Lamouchi took charge of the team in January and is still searching for the best lineup for the country\u2019s seventh World Cup. In the latest round of friendlies, the side narrowly beat Haiti 1\u20130 and drew 0\u20130 with Canada. Now, tougher tests lie ahead, as Tunisia will face Austria and Belgium in two friendlies before kicking off its campaign in the tournament against Sweden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/em>:
Iraq returns to World Cup after 40 years<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a9Fran\u00e7ois Lo Presti\/AFP<\/div>
\u00a9Mi News\/Nurphoto via AFP<\/div>
\u00a9Julio Cesar Aguilar\/AFP<\/div>
\u00a9Mauro Ujetto\/Nurphoto via AFP<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq, Tunisia and Morocco will represent the Middle East and North Africa in the tournament starting in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2316,"featured_media":408326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[109],"tags":[2034,34374,52837,9534,51207,2050,48455,9731,2766,591,9537,25409,48982,9558,9598,54598,9595,31099,13406,48914,2166,3047],"class_list":{"0":"post-408369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-algeria","9":"tag-argentina-2-en","10":"tag-brahim-diaz","11":"tag-brazil-en","12":"tag-canada-2","13":"tag-competition","14":"tag-egypt-2","15":"tag-fifa-en","16":"tag-france","17":"tag-iraq","18":"tag-jordan-en","19":"tag-messi-en","20":"tag-mexico-2","21":"tag-morocco-en","22":"tag-qatar-en","23":"tag-salah-2","24":"tag-saudi-arabia-en","25":"tag-torneio-en-2","26":"tag-tournament","27":"tag-tunisia-2","28":"tag-united-states","29":"tag-world-cup"},"wps_subtitle":"Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq, Tunisia and Morocco will represent the Middle East and North Africa in the tournament starting in June.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408369"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":408373,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408369\/revisions\/408373"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}