Bahrain juniors lose to Yemen

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s junior national football team wrapped up their campaign in the second West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) U18 Boys Championship last night with a 0-1 defeat to Yemen.

The tournament is being played in the Iraqi city of Basra, and yesterday’s contest was the fourth and final Group

A fixture for the nationals.

It was their second loss in those games, and it confirmed Bahrain’s elimination from title contention.

Only the top two teams from the two preliminary round groups go through to the final.

Either hosts Iraq and Kuwait will qualify from Group A, and they will meet Group B winners Lebanon.

The championship-decider is scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

The lone goal in last night’s match was scored by Yemen’s Hashem Bilbel from the penalty spot.

They were able to take their lead in as early as the ninth minute, and the Bahrainis could not recover despite a few chances to equalise.

Bahrain is in Iraq with a delegation headed by Bahrain Football Association board member Ayman Al Fardan.

The team is being guided by head coach Adel Al Nuaimi.

Twenty-three players were on the Bahrainis’ roster in the competition, including Mohammed Arhama, Khaled Khalil, Abdulla Al Aker, Sayed Mahmood Almosawi, Talal Sami, Ahmed Diaa, Ramzi Abdulla, Mahmood Al Bannai, Ali Mohammed, Mahmood Al Hamrani, Ali Al Busaid, Abdulla Al Khalasi, Hashem Luay, Moayyad Aldesoki, Saad Abdulla, Sayed Ali Hassan, Salem Al Dosari, Mubarak Mohammed, Sayed Jassim Majid, Abdulrahman Hameed, Abdulla Al Subaie, Hassan Samir and Mustafa Mohammed.

Bahrain made a winning start following a 2-1 win over Palestine on opening night, but then a 0-4 loss to Iraq and 1-1 draw with Kuwait put them in a precarious position heading into yesterday’s clash with Yemen.

They needed to win by at least four goals to have any chance of topping Group A, and also hope that Iraq would lose to Palestine in the other divisional fixture last night, which was the last match of the preliminary stage