Kuwait Youth face Cambodia in a complex fixture

Kuwait officials: Our national youth (under-20) football team is aiming to defeat host Cambodia when they face them at 3:00 p.m. Kuwait time today, in the third and final round of Group 7 of the Asian Cup qualifiers, which will be held in China next year.

Japan plays Yemen at 12:00 noon earlier in the day, also in Cambodia, which is hosting the Group 7 matches.

The “Blues” enter the final round with zero points after losing 4-0 to Japan and 3-1 to Yemen, respectively. Cambodia and Yemen each have three points, while Japan leads the group with six points.

Our youth team holds slim hopes of qualifying for the Asian Cup, pending the final standings after all teams complete their qualifying matches. The “Blues” also seek a victory to avoid being relegated to the “development phase” of the youth Asian Cup qualifiers, a format adopted by the Asian Football Confederation starting with the next edition. In this system, the six teams with the lowest results from the current qualifiers will drop into the development phase alongside teams from lower-ranked tiers.

The youth “Blues” are coached by Croatian manager Virdo Milin, and feature several notable players, including goalkeeper Rakan Al-Saeed, Sulaiman Jamal, Abdullah Al-Qarazi, Muath Al-Mutairi, Musfer Al-Adwani, Fawaz Al-Dawood, and Hussein Al-Aryan.