Casas brought a much better squad than when he slaughtered Indonesia in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
The Iraqi Football Federation (IFA), Thursday (28/12) early morning WIB, released a list of 26 Lions of Mesopotamia players who will take part in the 2023 Asian Cup in January 2024 in Qatar.
Most of the players are not much different from those called up to qualify for the 2026 World Cup. However, the players this time are stronger than those who beat the Indonesian national team 5-1 last November.
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Coach Jesus Casas included a number of players who were grazing in Europe and could not join the team last November, such as Ivar Jenner’s colleague at FC Utrecht, Zidane Iqbal.
Apart from Iqbal, other players included in the squad are Saudi Arabian club defender Abha Saad Natiq, Allan Mohideen (Utsikten/Sweden), Amjad Attwan (Zakho/Iraq), Montader Madjed (Hammarby/Sweden), and Danilo Al-Saed (Sandefjord /Norway).
The players are scheduled to begin gathering on January 2 for a training camp in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Before competing in the Asian Cup, Iraq first tested against South Korea on January 6.
Iraq will have their first Group D match against Indonesia on January 15. Four days later, they faced one of the favorites to win, Japan, and closed with a duel against Vietnam on January 24.
The following is a list of 26 Iraqi players for the 2023 Asian Cup:
Kiper: Jalal Hassan, Ahmed Basil, Fahad Talib.
Rear: Ali Adnan, Rebin Al Sulaka, Frans Putros, Saad Natiq, Zaid Tahseen, Allan Mohideen, Hussein Ali, Ahmed Yahia, Merchas Doski.
Middle: Amjad Attwan, Amir Al-Ammari, Osama Rashid, Ahmad Allee, Zidane Iqbal, Ibrahim Bayesh, Montader Madjed, Danilo Al-Saed, Youssef Amyn, Bashar Resan, Ali Jasim.
Front: Aymen Hussein, Mohanad Ali, Ali Al-Hamadi.
