For the second time in less than a year, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela will meet in an international friendly to be played at Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Stadium in Jeddah on Friday.
The Green Falcons are coming off an early exit in the group stage of the Gulf Cup in January, losing their final two matches of that tournament, while the Venezuelans have only dropped one of their previous six exhibition encounters, defeating the Saudis 1-0 last June.
Match preview
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They created one of the biggest shocks to begin Qatar 2022, but since their 2-1 victory over soon-to-be World champions Argentina, things have not gone quite as well for Herve Renard and his team.
The Saudis came into the Gulf Cup as tournament runners-up, but just like at the World Cup, they failed to keep their early momentum going losing their final two group fixtures after winning their opener.
At the moment, Saudi Arabia are the fifth-highest-ranked team in Asia (49th), though, in January, they lost to a pair of sides seeded over 15 places below them in Iraq (68th) and Oman (75th).
That World Cup upset versus Argentina was their first triumph against a side from the CONMEBOL region in over 20 years when they edged Uruguay in a 2002 friendly (3-2).
Friday will be their first match on home soil in nearly a year, and the Green Falcons are unbeaten in their last 10 games played in Saudi Arabia with a clean sheet in three of their previous four encounters in Jeddah.
Renard - who is reportedly set to become the new France Women's head coach - has usually employed a high-pressing system with his side playing in a high defensive line, which has come back to bite them in recent matches, exposing them to plenty of counters out wide.
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Following their dismal showing in World Cup qualifying under the experienced Jose Pekerman, the Venezuelan Football Federation have turned to another Argentine to try and take this team to new heights.
That Argentine is Fernando Batista, who served as an assistant to Pekerman with this team for two years, and has plenty of prior experience coaching youth national teams.
A failure by the Venezuelan Federation to launch a youth competition in the oil-rich nation was supposedly the main reason Pekerman left, so it will be up to Batista to try and bring this team back to respectability.
If friendlies were all that was at stake in football, then La Vinotinto might be one of the powerhouses of the beautiful game, having lost only three of their last 20 exhibition contests dating back to 2016.
However, when there is something at stake, the pressure seems too much for them, as we witnessed throughout World Cup 2022 qualifying when Venezuela finished dead last in CONMEBOL with just 10 points, failing to score on nine occasions.
They are unbeaten in their last seven matches versus Asian opponents, with their previous defeat against that region coming in September 2014 against Japan (3-0).
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Team News
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Fahad Al-Rashidi and Hussain Al-Qahtani were the only two players selected by Renard who have yet to earn a senior cap with Saudi Arabia, while Al-Nassr keeper Nawaf Al-Aqidi made his first three appearances for the national team at the Gulf Cup earlier this year.
Firas Al-Buraikan has 10 goals in the Saudi Professional League this season, one more than Cristiano Ronaldo, while the last player to score for the national team was Turki Al-Ammar, the first internationally for the Al-Shabab midfielder, who was not selected for this encounter.
Saleh Al-Shehri had the equaliser for the Saudis in their upset over Argentina last November, with the winner coming courtesy of Salem Al-Dawsari, who also scored in their defeat to Mexico (2-1), equalling former striker Sami Al-Jaber for the most goals with the Green Falcons in World Cup competition (three).
Venezuela have five uncapped players available for selection on Friday, including Brayan Alcocer, Teo Quintero, Jean Fuentes, Andres Ferro and Cristopher Varela.
Captain Tomas Rincon needs just five more caps with the national team to draw even with Juan Arango for the most all-time, while Salomon Rondon can surpass Roberto Rosales for the fourth-most appearances in this match as Rosales was not chosen for this encounter.
Rondon, the all-time leading goalscorer for Venezuela, has found the back of the net in each of the last three games for his country, while Josef Martinez needs just three more goals with the Venezuelans to draw even with Ruberth Moran for fourth all-time.
Saudi Arabia possible starting lineup:
Al-Owais; Abdulhamid, Al-Tambakti, Al-Amri, Al-Harbi; Kanno, Sharahili; S. Al-Dawsari, Al-Khaibari, Al-Aboud; Al-Buraikan
Venezuela possible starting lineup:
Graterol; Hernandez, Navarro, Makoun, O. Gonzalez; Savarino, Rincon, Moreno; Cordova, Rondon, Josef Martinez
We say: Saudi Arabia 1-0 Venezuela
Although the Venezuelans play with much less fear in friendlies than games that count, the Green Falcons are in an element they know well and should benefit from the home crowd and an environment they are comfortable in, so we believe they will have the edge on Friday.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Joel Lefevre
