MUSCAT: The Oman national football team will play two crucial friendly matches, first against China on December 29 and second against the UAE on January 6, 2024 during an abroad camp that will take place in the UAE later this month. The Red Warriors will get back to their domestic warm-up sessions ahead of taking part in the 2024 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar next January.
The Oman players will commence their practice sessions for the domestic camp on December 11 at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex under supervision of Croatian coach Branko Ivankovic. The local training camp will run for four days while on the fifth day on December 15, the national team players will travel to UAE for an abroad camp that will feature two exciting scheduled warm-up matches against China and UAE.
Following the UAE camp, the national team delegation will travel to Doha city, Qatar to take part in the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 which will take place during January 12 to February 10, 2024. Oman will compete in Group F besides Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Kyrgyzstan teams. The national team will commence their opening match against Saudi Arabia on January 16 while they will take on Thailand on January 21. The concluding match will be against Kyrgyzstan on January 25.
Head coach Ivankovic is expected to announce the squad very soon which is likely to be similar to the recent one with minor changes. Recalling of Arshad al Alawi might be one of the changes besides some other faces.
Oman had suffered to a 1-0 loss against Kyrgyzstan in Bishkek last month during the second match in Group D of the Preliminary Joint Qualification - Round 2 for the Fifa World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027. Oman team had commenced their campaign with a thrilling 3-0 win over Chinese Taipei in the group opener.
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