Saudi Arabia sealed second place in AFC qualifying group, and qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 2006.

TThey appointed Juan Antonio Pizzi in November, who is their third head coach in short time interval. That could be a big problem, but they played a lot of friendlies since his appointment, sohe has already managed to gel players together. Almost all players come from the same league, so they know each other quite well.

1. Even though most of their players lack physical strength, they are a team consisted of players with technical qualities and pace. They are a threat in transition, as they throw a lot of players forward in order to swarm the area around the box – up to 6 players quickly open up counter-attacks and find themselves at the other end. This leaves them quite open at the back, but opponents could have problems to cope with numerical superiority that they try to create against defenders.
2. One of obvious weaknesses of theirs which could prove to be crucial are physical attributes of players. They are a team of small players and have problems to cope with physically stronger teams when it comes to duel play. This was the biggest issue in set-piece situations, especially during corner-kicks where opponents could definitely hurt them. This can also reffer to their defending against long balls – they win around 35% of air duels per match on average. They have problems to maintain vertical compactness against long balls, so opponents managed to gain quick access into space between the lines by winning second balls.

They concede frequently in transition. This is mostly due to high positioning of full-backs in attack and their frequent runs in behind the defensive line.