\n
It was fitting that Iraq secured a place at the 2026 World Cup by beating Bolivia in Mexico, the location of their first ever appearance on the global stage back in 1986.<\/b><\/p>\n
Karim Allawi was a player 40 years ago as the Lions of Mesopotamia lost all three games against Paraguay, Belgium and the hosts but now he is a fan, desperately hoping that his successors can fare a little better even if games against Norway, France and Senegal look daunting.<\/p>\n
The 66-year-old will, along with the vast majority of the 46 million people in the football-mad country, be watching on 16 June as Iraq take on Erling Haaland’s Norway in Boston.<\/p>\n
“This is truly a group of death and tougher than 1986,” Allawi told BBC Sport. <\/p>\n
“France are multiple-time world champions, Norway are one of the strongest developing European teams, and Senegal are African champions who have qualified for the World Cup several times. <\/p>\n
“I hope they deliver strong performances and achieve better results than we did in 1986.”<\/p>\n
Compared to the past team, this Iraq side, ranked 57th in the world, is full of players with European experience such as Ali Al-Hamadi of Ipswich Town, former Manchester United midfielder Zidane Iqbal, now at Utrecht in the Netherlands, and Kevin Yakob, fresh from helping AGF become champions of Denmark.<\/p>\n
Hiring Graham Arnold, who took Australia to the second round of the 2022 World Cup, in 2025 has also paid off. <\/p>\n
The 62-year-old helped Iraq through the third and fourth rounds of qualification, a tight play-off victory against the United Arab Emirates before the win against Bolivia. That was the 21st game on a long road to the finals.<\/p>\n
The celebrations may have died down but the excitement remains. TV sports reporter Nawar Faeq Al-Rikabi told the BBC: “People may think we are the weakest team in the group but anything could happen. <\/p>\n
“We will be fine, there is no pressure on the Iraqi players, they just have to perform and we have quality players who can perform.”<\/p>\n
The addition of Arnold could make the difference. “In 2022, Argentina found it very hard to win against Australia,” added Al-Rikabi. “It will be the same with us. He is very experienced and I think we will do something really good.”<\/p>\n
The target is to improve on 1986. “To score more than one goal would be a new achievement, to win a game would be a great achievement, to qualify for the next stage would be terrific. People have waited so long and we are now ready.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was fitting that Iraq secured a place at the 2026 World Cup by beating Bolivia…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[10126,621,3848,10125,2699,2491,3581,1201],"class_list":["post-85771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories","tag-40year","tag-cup","tag-iraqs","tag-punishments","tag-sanctions","tag-wait","tag-wars","tag-world"],"yoast_head":"\n
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