Jakarta. FIFA World Cup winner Emmanuel Petit recently said that Indonesia could beat Bahrain 3-1 at the football tournament's upcoming qualifiers match.

Indonesia's Garuda squad is set to meet its Bahrainian counterpart at the 2026 World Cup qualifiers game in Jakarta on Tuesday night. Enthusiasm soars high as the match can make or break Indonesia's World Cup dreams. Former French footballer Petit, who gave Paris its 1998 FIFA World Cup victory, revealed his predictions for the Indonesia vs Bahrain game.

"I'm pretty sure they [Indonesia] will win. ... I would say, the scores are something like 3-1. Three [points] for Indonesia," Petit told reporters in Jakarta on Monday evening.

The Arsenal legend said it would be a "very, very important game" for Indonesia, saying that the Garudas must have learnt from the mistakes made in the Sydney game. The Garudas suffered an embarrassing 1-5 defeat to Australia's Socceroos last week. Petit admitted to having watched the Sydney match in person, saying that the Indonesian team started quite strong but lost confidence later in the game.

The Sydney match marked the debut of the newly appointed Netherlands-born coach Patrick Kluivert who replaced the popular South Korean coach Shin Tae-yong. Kluivert has been in the hot seat since being picked to coach the Indonesian team. The public criticisms became harsher after the Sydney loss.

Petit, who was Kluivert's teammate in Barcelona, admitted that the latter was a powerful striker back in the day. The French athlete said Indonesians should give Kluivert a chance. But at the same time, Kluivert has to learn the ropes fast.

"[Kluivert] is learning as a coach at the moment. But again, Indonesia doesn't have time to learn. They have to deliver right now, so he has no choice," Petit said.

Indonesia has only made it to the FIFA World Cup once in 1938. The team competed under the name Dutch East Indies as Indonesia had not gained independence at the time.

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