French coach Hervé Renard (56 years old), the coach of the Saudi national team, traveled to the Qatari capital, Doha, to watch the match between Al-Nassr Al-Saudi against its host Al-Gharafa of Qatar, today, Monday, in the fifth round of the “League Stage” competitions in the elite AFC Champions League competition.
The Al-Gharafa and Al-Nasr match will be held on the grounds of Al-Bayt World Cup Stadium, and will start at exactly seven in the evening Doha and Mecca time (six p.m. Cairo time).
Al-Nasr occupies third place in the “League Stage” standings for the Al-Gharb region in the continental championship, with 10 points from 4 matches (3 wins, 1 draw), while Al-Gharafa comes sixth with 4 points. A win, a draw and two losses.
And taught”win win“From his own sources, Renard decided to come to Qatar to watch the Saudi Al-Nasr players during the match, and the French coach may stay in Doha for an additional day, in order to follow the local Al-Hilal players, during the next “Al-Zaeem” match against Al-Sadd of Qatar, on the floor of the “Jassim Bin Jassim” stadium. Hamad, tomorrow, Tuesday.
Hervé Renard hopes to reach the best possible list for the Saudi national team during the coming period, especially after the “Green” team suffered a shocking loss (0-2) against Indonesia, last Tuesday, in the sixth round of the third round competitions in the Asian qualifiers for the finals. World Cup 2026.
The Saudi national team occupies fourth place in the third group standings in the qualifiers, with 6 points from 6 matches (one win, 3 draws, 2 losses), lagging behind third-place Indonesia on goal difference, one point behind second-place Australia, and a full 10 points behind Japan.
As Mancini’s successor, Hervé Renard returned to coach Saudi Arabia
Hervé Renard returned to coaching the Saudi national team last month, after the Saudi Federation dismissed the Italian coach, Roberto Mancini, due to poor results.
It is noteworthy that the third round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup will witness the participation of 18 teams (including 9 Arab teams), and the 18 teams have been divided into 3 groups, with 6 teams in each group.
The first and second places in the final standings of each group will qualify for the 2026 World Cup finals, while the third and fourth places will advance to the fourth round of qualifiers.
The 6 teams qualifying for the fourth round will be divided into two groups, with 3 teams in each group, with only the first-place team from each group qualifying for the World Cup.
The second-placed teams in the two groups will play in an elimination match, the winner of which will qualify for the global playoff, which in turn qualifies for the World Cup, which means that the Asian continent may be represented in the 2026 World Cup finals by 9 teams.
