By FPDC Staff
Pakistan and Isa Town defender Muhammad Ahmed says he is excited about facing Yemen in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Pre-Qualifiers next month.
Ahmed who joined Bahraini 2nd division side Isa Town last summer has been in good form for his club helping the 2nd Division side reach the quarter finals of Kings Cup. Ahmed said he had watched Yemen closely in recent months including the Gulf Cup where they drew with Bahrain and Qatar and narrowly losing to Saudi Arabia; “Yemen have lot of young players and they have been playing good football recently,” he said in an exclusive interview with FootballPakistan.com
However Ahmed was quick to add that Pakistan will have a good chance given the emphasis on preparations ahead of the qualifiers.
“If we have all of our players available from overseas, we have a good chance to progress,” added the versatile defender.
Talking of his availability for the training Ahmed left it up to PFF and his club to agree on a suitable as Isa Town has matches scheduled for late February and early March. It is important to mention that Ahmed was not released by his club for the friendly against Afghanistan which was not on a FIFA scheduled dates. Given the World Cup qualifiers are competitive games but also fall outside FIFA dates of 23-31 March, Pakistani fans will be hoping Ahmed is given the opportunity to represent Pakistan once again.
For number of years Pakistan has struggled to fill up the Punjab stadium in Lahore due to lack of public awareness, however it was different scene when they took on Afghanistan with thousands cheering on both teams. Ahmed hopes Yemen game would draw even bigger crowd and that having such support at home is crucial.
Ahmed was part of the Pakistan team that faced early exit last time around at the hands of Bangladesh and he is now determined to put that right and help Pakistan win their first ever World Cup qualifying game and progress to the 2nd Round.