AFC Asian Cup 2023: Saudi Arabia’s fixtures, schedule, squad, telecast and more

Saudi Arabia will play Oman in their first game on January 16.

The 2023 AFC Asian Cup Qatar, will be the 18th edition of Asia’s biggest and most prestigious football tournament. The tournament involves 24 teams, who have been divided into groups of four. 

Whilst the tournament is all set to be extremely competitive and unpredictable, Saudi Arabia are amongst the bookkeeper’s favourites to win the tournament, and rightly so.

The Green Falcons incredibly defeated the mighty Argentina in their FIFA World Cup opener, and ended the Albiceleste’s 36 game unbeaten run.  

Now, with renewed hope, and the will to recreate history, Saudi will tip toe in Qatar, under the guidance of Roberto Mancini. The Italian manager, who has the experience of winning major international tournaments, might just prove to be the man to help Saudi end their 27-year Asian Cup drought. 

Teams 

Group F

Saudi Arabia

Thailand

Kyrgyzstan

Oman

Format

The 24 participating nations have all been divided into six groups of four teams each, where they will compete in a single round robin format. 

Upon the completion of all group games, the top two teams from the group will make it to the knockouts, whereas the best four among the third placed teams will qualify for the round of 16. 

Thereon, the teams will play in a series of single legged knockout games, that will ultimately lead to the showdown for the continent’s most prestigious football title.

Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:

1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
4. If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
5. Goal difference in all group matches;
6. Goals scored in all group matches;
7. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are tied and they are playing each other in the last round of the group;
8. Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
9. Drawing of lots.

Venue

Saudi Arabia’s games will be held across the following stadiums

• Khalifa International Stadium
• Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium
• Education City Stadium

Telecast 

The AFC Asian Cup 2023 matches will be telecast live on Sports18 Network’s TV channels in India. Live streaming of the AFC Asian Cup 2023 will be available on the JioCinema app and website. The tournament will be shown on Shahid in Saudi Arabia.

In Saudi Arabia, the Asian Cup can be live streamed on Shahid

Saudi Arabia’s fixtures at the 2023 Asian Cup

DATE		OPPONENT	REPORT
Tue, Jan 16	Saudi Arabia	Oman	CLICK HERE
Sun, Jan 21	Saudi Arabia	Kyrgyz Republic	CLICK HERE
Thu, Jan 25	Saudi Arabia	Thailand	CLICK HERE

AFC Asian Cup 2023 Saudi Arabia men’s football team – full squad

Goalkeepers: Nawaf Al Aqidi, Raghid Najjar, Ahmad Al Kassar

Defenders: Hassan Kadish, Aoun Al Salouli, Ali Al Bulaihi, Ali Lajami, Hassan Tambakti, Saud Abdulhamid, Fawaz Al Saqur

Midfielders/Forwards: Ayman Yahya, Abdullah Al Khaibari, Mukhtar Ali, Abdulelah Al Maliki, Faisal Al Ghamdi, Eid Al Muwallad, Salem Al Dawsari, Abbas Al Hassan, Nasser Al Dawsari, Mohammed Kanno, Sami Al Najei, Fahad Al Muwallad, Abdulrahman Ghareeb, Firas Al Buraikan, Abdullah Radif, and Saleh Al Shehri

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