Pakistan men’s football team will face Tajikistan in the 2nd round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers at the Jinnah Stadium, Islamabad tomorrow. The match will begin at 2 PM (Pakistan time) and will be broadcast for the Pakistani audience through Pakistan Television (PTV).
Pakistan faced a defeat at the hands of Saudi Arabia 4 days ago when the Saudis scored 3 goals in the second half to win the match 4-0. Pakistan had managed to keep Saudi down to 2-0 till the 91st minute when Abdulrahman Ghareeb scored through a shot in the bottom left corner.
Talking about injuries and suspensions, Pakistan will be without their first-choice center-back Easah Suliman, who also serves as the captain of the team. He suffered an injury while playing in the Azerbaijan Premier League which has kept him out of the match against Saudi Arabia as well as the upcoming match against Tajikistan.
The second setback for the team is Shayak Dost. The midfielder got consecutive yellow cards in matches against Cambodia and Saudi Arabia which means, according to FIFA regulations, he will miss the upcoming encounter against Tajikistan. It will be interesting to see who replaces him.
Pakistan can go with different formations in the absence of Dost, here are a few options:
3-4-3
| Yousaf Butt |
| Mohib Afridi/Hamza Munir | Mamoon Khan | Abdullah Iqbal |
| Omer Hayat | Rahis Nabi | Alamgir Ghazi | Haseeb Khan |
| Abdul Samad | Fareed Ullah | Otis Khan |
4-4-2/4-4-1-1
Yousaf Butt
|
| Omer Hayat | Rahis Nabi | Alamgir Ghazi | Otis Khan |
| Abdul Samad | Fareed Ullah |
Pakistan’s head coach Stephen Constantine achieved success when he coached the side against Cambodia on this ground. He will try to increase his streak to 2-0 at the Jinnah Stadium, although it’ll be a much harder task this time around.
Expecting a good result from the team with the massive crowd at it’s back.