Saudi Arabia faces Ecuador in preparation for the World Cup
The Saudi national team will face Ecuador tomorrow in a friendly match at the "Nueva Condomina" stadium in the Spanish city of Murcia, as part of the two sides' preparations for the World Cup finals to be held in Qatar between November 20 and December 18.
It is the second camp for Saudi Arabia in Spain, after the first last June, in which it played two matches against Venezuela and Colombia, losing them by one (0-1).
Al-Akhdar, who will compete in the finals for the sixth time in its history, plays in Group C alongside Argentina, Mexico and Poland, while Ecuador plays in Group A alongside Qatar, Senegal and the Netherlands.
Al-Akhdar had never faced Ecuador on any previous occasion.
Al-Akhdar began its camp in the Spanish city of Alicante last Sunday, with the participation of 26 players chosen by French coach Herve Renard, and past training included the fitness and technical aspects.
Renard aims from the match between Ecuador and then the United States four days later, to determine the readiness of all players in all respects, and to implement some methods and technical plans.
The participation of team captain Salman Al-Faraj and defender Hassan Timbukti was not determined due to the minor injuries they sustained recently, but Al-Akhdar has a large group of influential names such as Sultan Al-Ghannam, Yasser Al-Shahrani, Abdul-Ilah Al-Omari, Salem Al-Dosari, Muhammad Kanoo and Sami Al-Naji.
As for the Ecuador team, coached by Argentine Gustavo Alfaro, who previously supervised Al-Ahly of Saudi Arabia in 2009, it qualifies for the fourth World Cup in its history after 2002, 2006 and 2014, and qualified this time after it finished fourth in the South American qualifiers with 26 points, behind Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay .
The Ecuadorean national team includes distinguished players such as Byron Castillo of Leon of Mexico, Jordi Caicedo of Tigres of Mexico, Gonzalo Plata of Valladolid of Spain and Moises Caicedo of Brighton of England.
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