Manama: Bahrain will be up for a hard challenge when they meet North Korea in the 2018 World Cup and 2019 Asia Cup qualifiers today at 9.30am in Pyongyang.

Bahrain, who currently sit in fourth place with six points from five games, lost at home to group leaders North Korea 1-0 in their previous meeting.

The top teams in each of the eight groups will qualify for the third round and also gain direct entry to the 2019 Asia Cup along with the four best second-placed teams. The remaining three teams in the group will continue to battle for a place in the 2019 Asia Cup.

National team coach Sergio Batista will be without some of his key players. 

Abdulla Omar, Rashed Al Hooty and Al Sayed Mohammed Adnan have been sidelined due to injuries, while Fawzy Ayesh, Jesse John and Abdulla Fatai have not been called up. 

Abdulwahab Al Malood will also miss the fixture due to his absence from the training camp prior to the game because of university commitments.

The Argentinian coach Batista has also decided against playing any friendly matches with the players he called up and preferred to have training sessions instead.

Batista, a member of the Argentine team who won the World Cup in 1986 alongside the legendary Diego Maradona, will hope to get the three points from today’s game before the team travel to face second-place Uzbekistan. 

The final training session ahead of the match saw an atmosphere of passion and determination between the players and the coaching staff. 

Batista’s main concentration during the training session was raising the players’ tactical awareness. 

The session also saw the players train on shooting from a distance and playing crosses into the penalty box to have more goal-scoring chances. 

A defeat for Bahrain will mean losing their chances of  qualifying for the second round of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, and they will only have the 2019 Asia Cup qualifiers to compete for. 

Also in group ‘H’ alongside Bahrain and North Korea, last-placed Yemen will face Uzbekistan. The Philippines do not have any match scheduled during this game week.