The 2023 Gulf Cup soccer tournament reached its final, and the host Iraqi men's soccer team continued to perform well, eventually defeating the Omani men's soccer team 3-2 to win the title for the fourth time in the team's history and the Gulf Cup trophy after 35 years. Now, the rise of Iraq will be a major opponent in the next World Qualifier, causing us great trouble.
The Gulf Cup is a soccer tournament of the highest standard in the Arab and Middle East region. One of the traditional powerhouses, Iraq won the title three times in the last century and has been unproductive since the 21st century. Even the golden generation that won the Asian Cup in 2007 failed to win the Gulf Cup.
After 44 years, Iraq again hosted the Gulf Cup soccer tournament, the last time in 1979. The Gulf Cup teams were UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Yemen and Iraq. After more than ten days of play, Iraq and Oman met in the final.
Compared to Iraq's long failure to win the title, Oman last won the title in 2017, only six years ago, so Iraqi fans are more looking forward to winning the Gulf Cup. In the latest world ranking, Iraq is ranked 68th and 7th in Asia, while Oman is ranked 75th and 9th in Asia, and there is not much difference in strength between the two teams.
Ibrahim Bayesh opened the scoring for Iraq in the 24th minute of the first half and Oman didn't equalize until the 99th minute of the second half to make it 1-1 and send the teams into extra time. Kazim helped Iraq go over again 2-1 in the 116th minute of extra time before Oman equalized in the 119th minute. Fans thought the match would go to penalties and Munaf scored in the 122nd minute to help Iraq complete the whistle 3-2.
Winning the title at home couldn't be better for a team. Iraq, who last won the title in 1988, have now ended a 35-year wait to win the Gulf Cup trophy once again and claim their first title in 2023. At this moment, Iraqi fans can enjoy the revelry.
In recent years, Iraq has been moving up the rankings, from 80th to 68th, but the Chinese men's soccer team has been dropping to 80th.
It is worth mentioning that the national soccer team has played a large number of matches against Iraq, where the national soccer team has won less and lost more. Iraq can be called a nemesis, and the last three matches in the preliminaries were all losses for the national soccer team. Now that Iraq is at the top Asian level of strength and the Asian zone quota has been increased to 8.5, it is surely more likely to qualify for the World Cup than the national soccer team.
