For the first time since 2006, Saudi Arabia cruised to the top of its group in the final round of AFC World Cup qualifying, nailing home its spot in Qatar with a win over Australia in the last match. The second-lowest-ranked team to reach the World Cup this year (51st in the world) should have plenty of confidence after finishing over No. 24-ranked Korea Republic in the table.
The good news for the Green Falcons is that they’ve had the opportunity to play a host of pre-tournament friendlies after their qualifying campaign, several of which were against teams headed to Qatar. The bad news is that the team found the net just four times in nine matches.
Manager Hervé Renard, who led both the Ivory Coast and Zambia to Africa Cup of Nations titles, is now finally at his first World Cup. He took over a side that has only reached the knockout stage once before, doing so back in 1994.
