As part of its preparations for the 2026 World Cup, the Saudi “Green” team suffered a friendly defeat against Serbia with a score of 2-1 in the match that brought together the two teams at the “TS Arena” stadium in Bačka Topola.
Abdullah Al-Hamdan opened the scoring for the Saudi national team in the eighth minute, taking advantage of the goalkeeper’s advance, to give “Al-Akhdar” the lead in the first half.
But the Serbian national team was able to come back in the second half, as Strahinja Pavlovic scored the equalizer in the 66th minute, before Aleksandar Mitrovic scored the winning goal with a header four minutes later.
Coach Hervé Renard made some changes in the starting lineup, starting the match with Mohammed Al Owais in goal, in addition to Nawaf Bushell and Abdullah Al Hamdan.
Renard had included a list of players for the training camp, while Miteb Al-Harbi was excluded from the match due to injury, and Ali Lagami and Hassan Kadesh were excluded for technical reasons before traveling to Serbia.
This is the second loss for the Saudi national team during the international break in March, after the heavy defeat suffered by “Al-Akhdar” against Egypt with a score of 4-0 in Jeddah.
The Saudi national team is preparing to participate in the World Cup in Group Eight, which includes Spain, Uruguay and Cape Verde.
