Yemen exit Gulf Cup after Qatar defeat as coach describes strain on players

Yemen’s hopes of reaching the Arabian Gulf Cup semi-finals ended with a 1–0 defeat by Qatar in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on 28 September 2026. The loss was Yemen’s second in Group B and left the team unable to advance. Coach Noureddine Ould Ali has described players worrying about their families at home while trying to concentrate on the tournament.

The Qatar Football Association said Youssef Abdurisag scored the match’s only goal in the 64th minute, finishing a cross from Sultan Al Brake. Qatar moved to six points and secured a semi-final place. Yemen still had one group match to play when the result confirmed its elimination.

How Yemen’s Gulf Cup campaign unfolded

Yemen had opened with a 4–0 defeat by the United Arab Emirates, according to the Guardian’s account of the campaign. After the loss to Qatar ended its qualification hopes, Yemen beat Bahrain 5–2 in its final group game. That closing result gave the team a win, although it could not change its place outside the semi-finals.

The distinction between elimination and the end of Yemen’s fixtures matters here: the team was already out after its second defeat, but its campaign still included the subsequent Bahrain match. The Qatar Football Association’s report, published on 28 September, identified both Yemen and Bahrain as eliminated after two losses each. The Guardian’s account, published on 1 October, includes Yemen’s final result.

What Noureddine Ould Ali said about preparing the squad

The coach said Saudi Arabia’s welcome and its training facilities and hotels helped the team concentrate on football once it arrived. Those arrangements did not remove the concerns players carried with them. ‘They worry about what is going on in the country and they hope that their families are OK,’ he told the Guardian. He said he asked them to try to focus on the games.

Ould Ali also described how interruptions to football inside Yemen affect players’ opportunities to play and maintain fitness. He said the domestic league had stopped for a long period, restarted this year and completed the first half of its season. Regular club matches matter because players need to keep fit and show their ability, he said.

Yemen Monitor reported in June that the Yemen Football Association had set 25 June for first-division competition to resume after a break associated with Eid al-Adha and national-team commitments. Its report described the date as part of a revised domestic schedule. It provides a separate account of the league’s timetable, though it does not establish the current condition of every club or player.

Football at home and the next tournament

Yemen have not played a home international since a 2–1 win over Palestine in Sanaa in 2012, the Guardian reported. The newspaper said the Houthis took control of the capital in 2014, followed by a Saudi-led intervention and years of fighting. It reported that a United Nations-brokered truce in 2022 reduced hostilities. Against that history, Ould Ali’s account places family worries and disrupted preparation alongside the results on the pitch.

The coach told the Guardian that football is ‘a religion’ in Yemen and that supporters follow the national team and its players closely. His comments describe what representing the country means to the squad, while the reported absence of home games shows one practical limit on that connection: supporters in Yemen have not been able to watch the team play a home international for years.

Yemen’s next major tournament place was secured before this Gulf Cup exit. The Guardian reported that a win over Lebanon in June took Yemen into the 2027 Asian Cup, only its second qualification for that competition. Ould Ali said Yemen would open against South Korea in January 2027 and hoped the team could make people at home proud. The exact date and venue of that match were not established by the sources used here.