06/06/2026

SPORTS SATURDAY | JUNE 6, 2026

27

2026 WORLD CUP

Bosnia mix experience and youth

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA manager Sergej Barbarez opted for a blend of experience, youth and new faces when he announced his World Cup squad with veteran striker Edin Dzeko leading the line and uncapped mid fielder Ermin Mahmic also included. Dzeko is Bosnia’s most capped player and all-time top scorer. The 40-year-old is one of two survivors from his country’s only previ ous World Cup appearance in 2014, along side defender Sead Kolasinac. Bosnia defeated Wales and Italy on penal ties to come through the playoffs and Dzeko picked up a shoulder injury at the end of extra-time against the Italians in the final and was unable to take part in the shootout. Dzeko then missed four games for his club Schalke 04, but came off the bench in their last two fixtures to ease worries over his fitness for the World Cup. Barbarez wasted no time in calling up Mahmic after the 21-year-old Austrian-born player had his request to change allegiance to Bosnia approved by Fifa earlier in May. Mahmic featured for Austria at U-17 and U-21 level, and had also played with Bosnia’s U-19 team, and Barbarez already sees him having a long career with the national side. “You can’t believe how happy and proud he is to be with us,“ Barbarez told reporters. “He plays in the position of eight and 10, he has depth, the profile of a player that we don’t have much. A player who will continue to develop, with the aim that Bosnia will have good players in the next 10 years.”

domestic league has the depth and experience required to compete consistently with elite opposition. Veteran Hassan Al Haydos, Qatar’s most capped player and a central figure in both of their Asian Cup triumphs, came out of interna tional retirement at coach Julen Lopetegui’s request and was in the preliminary World Cup squad, adding leadership and experience. Much will again depend on the long-estab lished partnership of Akram Afif and Almoez Ali. Akram the creative force and Asian Player of the Year in 2024, remains Qatar’s main “I am still carried by this feeling that I had on the pitch at the end of the match against Italy, and I have been holding onto it ever since,” Barbarez said. “My wish is to get into July (when the knockout stage begins), and then we will see,“ he added. Bosnia will be playing in their second World Cup finals. They were eliminated in the group stage in 2014 in Brazil. They will play joint hosts Canada in their first Group B match on June 13 (3am Malaysian time) in Toronto and will then face Switzerland and Qatar. Kerim Alajbegovic may be the youngest in the squad but the 18-year-old winger has already proven he has the skill and tempera ment for the big stage. Alajbegovic came off the bench against Wales, set up Dzeko’s equaliser and scored the winning penalty in the shootout and also converted a penalty when Bosnia beat Italy. Bosnia do not play especially beautiful football under Barbarez and systems change regularly – usually between 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-2 – but formations quickly become secondary once matches turn emotional, and with Bosnia they usually do. The team’s identity is built around aggres sive defending, direct football and quick transitions. Young players such as Alajbegovic, Esmir Bajraktarevic, Tarik Muharemovic and Amar Dedic have brought new energy to a squad. Barbarez said he was setting his team the goal of getting through the group phase.

Sergej Barbarez

Qatar seek to move beyond shadow of 2022 disappointment

QATAR will arrive at the World Cup seeking to redefine themselves after a disappointing tour nament in 2022 when they became the first host nation to lose all three group matches despite heavy investment and lofty expecta tions. Since then, the Gulf team have quietly reas serted themselves on the continental stage. They retained the Asian Cup in 2023 and secured qualification for the World Cup on merit for the first time after automatically qualifying as hosts in 2022. In North America, they will face Canada, Switzerland and Bosnia Herzegovina in Group B. Preparations, however, have been mixed. Qatar suffered a surprise group stage exit at the Arab Cup on home soil in December, while planned friendlies against Serbia and world champions Argentina in March were cancelled because of the war on Iran, denying coach Julen Lopetegui a chance to test his side against top-level opposi tion. Qatar’s squad remains built around a domestically developed core shaped through the Aspire Academy system that underpinned their rise over the past decade. Many of the squad have pro

Lopetegui has plenty of experience with Spain and Real Madrid before moving to England to lead Wolves and West Ham. His reputation is perhaps not quite what it was but Qatar offered something different. “Life owed me a World Cup,” he said upon qualifying. “We’ve been working for this moment for months and everything has turned out well. It’s a historic moment for the country, something that’s never been achieved before. The atmos phere has been extraordinary.” He will hope that this tournament goes bet ter than when he travelled to Russia for the 2018 World Cup as Spain manager: as news of his deal to take over at Real Madrid after the tournament came out, he was promptly dis missed and replaced by Fernando Hierro. Akram has been one of the stars of Asian football since the 2019 Asian Cup, when he recorded 10 assists as Qatar triumphed. Four years later, in the same tournament, he scored eight and made headlines around the world by scoring a hattrick in the final, picking out a playing card from his socks every time he did so. He tried his luck in Europe in Belgium (KAS Eupen) and Spain (Villarreal and Sporting Gijon) but it did not quite work out. He has been back in Qatar since 2020. He has always had the talent but did not manage to show it at the 2022 World Cup, so this is his chance. Boualem Khoukhi will turn 36 during the tournament so this is realistically the last chance for the Algerian-born defender to make international headlines.

on home soil, but a favourable group and back to-back Asian Cup titles have raised fresh expectations that they can translate their con tinental success to the global stage. Lopetegui, the latest of several Iberian appointments (Felix Sanchez, Bruno Pinheiro, Carlos Queiroz, Tintin Marquez and Luis Garcia) has tried out several different forma tions but is likely to go with a 4-2-3-1 when the tournament starts. The lessons from the last World Cup have been debated at length. Then, it was over pretty much before it had started as the hosts, perhaps burdened by a buildup that lasted 12 years, went 2-0 down within 31 minutes of their opening game to Ecuador, and it could have been even more. Expect a more solid set-up this time around; a focus on keeping things tight and looking to hit group opponents on the counter. There is work to be done as the team were all over the place defensively in qualifying, fin ishing the main round with a goal difference of minus seven after conceding 24 times in 10 games. Lopetegui has been trying to get to grips with that particular problem and we will soon see how successful he has been in that respect. Going forward there will be special atten tion to set pieces, where Qatar feel they can hurt their opponents. “We are aware of the magnitude of the responsibility placed upon us,” Lopetegui says.

source of invention and goals, while Almoez – the country’s all-time top scorer – continues to offer a cutting edge in major tournaments. Qatar no longer carry the scrutiny that surrounded the 2022 finals, and the pres sure may be lower than it was

gressed through the same devel opment pathway, giving Qatar continuity and cohesion, though questions remain over whether a group drawn largely from the

“We will spare no effort and will give everything we have to make the fans who stand behind us and support us happy and proud.”

Julen

Lopetegui