His predecessor Hussein Ammouta brought unprecedented success to Jordan by taking them to the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023™ final as well as finishing ahead of Saudi Arabia in the second round of FIFA World Cup qualifying, setting high standards for Sellami to maintain.
In calling up a 26-man squad, Sellami has included stalwarts like Yazan Al-Arab, Saleem Al-Ajalin, Noor Al-Rawabdeh, Ali Olwan, Mousa Al-Tamari and Yazan Al-Naimat, but he had to replace the injured Mohammed Abu Zuraiq with Aref Al-Haj.
Jordan will start as favourites, having not lost in any of their last seven matches against Kuwait with the last meeting in the third round of the AFC Asian Cup 2023 qualifiers in June 2022 being won by a 3-0 scoreline with goals from Olwan, Mahmoud Al-Mardi and Al-Rawabdeh.
Kuwait arrived at this stage of qualification after a dramatic last-gasp winner from Eid Al Rashidi helped them secure a 1-0 win against Afghanistan in the final match of Group A in the second round, propelling them to finish runners-up behind Qatar.
The 1980 AFC Asian Cup champions will also have a new head coach at the helm after Juan Antonio Pizzi took over from Rui Bento following the conclusion of the previous stage of qualification.
The experienced Pizzi has been working with his new set of players since August 24 with the training camp taking place in Dubai, giving him a good two-week period to imprint his ideas on the squad.
