Kuwait seeks to break its curse against Iraq in tomorrow's clash

Kuwait's national team enters tomorrow's match against Iraq while dragging behind it a heavy historical burden of 12 years, as the Blue has been experiencing a long drought of victories against the Lions of Mesopotamia, marking one of the longest periods of Iraqi dominance in the history of the famous Gulf derby.

Kuwait's last victory over Iraq's Lions of the Mesopotamia dates back to November 14, 2014, in the Gulf Cup, where they won 1-0 thanks to a goal from Fahad Al-Anzi. Since that date, encounters between the two teams have turned into an impenetrable wall that Kuwait has struggled to breach, no matter how hard they tried.

After that victory, both teams faced several official and friendly matches, with Kuwait's blue team failing to secure any notable wins, shifting the advantage entirely to the Iraqi side.

In terms of friendly matches, the Iraqi national team triumphed in two matches with scores of 2-1 in 2021 and 1-0 at the end of 2022, in addition to a positive draw of 2-2 in 2018. These results confirm Kuwait's decline against the Iraqi national team.

In the official qualifiers, the two teams faced each other twice in the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifiers. The first match ended in a goalless draw 0-0 at Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium in Kuwait, a match that saw the red card of defender Rebin Solaka. The second was an exciting match in Basra that ended in a 2-2 draw after a dramatic comeback by the Iraq national team.

The inability to win against the Iraq national team coincided with a challenging time for Kuwaiti football, which included an international suspension for several years by FIFA, leading to a significant drop in the Kuwaiti national team's ranking and distancing them from trophy contention for many years.

In contrast, the Iraq national team has experienced a significant surge and technical stability with a remarkable generation of professional players and strong names such as Aymen Hussein, Ali Jasim, Zidane Iqbal, and Ibrahim Bayesh. This generation has firmly established its presence in derby matches.

Iraq has become a psychological hurdle for Kuwait's players, as they often see the Iraqi national team snatch a draw or a win in the final moments. This has happened repeatedly in recent years.

All eyes will be on the anticipated clash tomorrow, Saturday, September 26, 2026, in the second round of the group stage of the Gulf Cup 27, held in Saudi Arabia at the Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Stadium in Jeddah.

The Kuwait national team enters the match with no option but to win after losing 1-0 to Saudi Arabia in the first round. They understand that breaking a 12-year curse could be the gateway to the true return of Kuwaiti football.

While the Iraq national team seeks to extend this streak for more years and confirm their historical superiority by achieving their nineteenth victory in the history of encounters that have reached 43 matches, with Iraq having 18 wins compared to Kuwait's 12 and 13 draws.