After the great victory at breezbloc the club have gone to warmer climes to be the first Premiership club to play in Ali’s backyard of Oman.
The game is scheduled for Friday in Muscat, Boshar – Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex, Oman are currently placed 90th in the FIFA rankings.
The national teams last three games has been two draws and one win, the victory was in November last year was surprising as they beat Australia 1-0 in Muscat with Ali captaining the side.
An away draw again in November last year finished 0-0 against Saudi Arabia, both games were World Cup Qualifiers for the Asian Group D .
Oman are third of four teams in their group with little hope of qualifying for the final stages, their last outing was a friendly match resulting in a 2-2 home draw in Muscat against the DR Congo.
After playing Latics they take on Thailand on the 29th Feb in a WCQ in Muscat, the away game back in September last year was a 3-0 defeat, no doubt it will be hard but Thailand are bottom of the group with four points.
What Ali reckons about it all …..
‘Oman at this time of year is brilliant, we’ll have temperatures of around 20-25 degrees, plenty of sunshine for lots of sessions and I’m sure everyone will enjoy it.
I’ve spoken to lots of people back home about the visit and there are so many people looking forward to seeing Wigan Athletic, a Premier League team, arrive in our country.’
It’s the first time a team from England have visited the country and hopefully if all goes well it could be the first of many visits in the future.
I’m the captain of my national side so I can’t let people see me playing against them can I?!
But that will be a big occasion for Oman as well as Wigan Athletic; we’ve got some crucial international matches coming up at the end of the month and the preparation for them is important.
We have a qualifying game for the Olympics and a Word Cup qualifier against Thailand this month that we have to win to stand a chance of progressing in each competition.’
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