Bahrain go down fighting against Belarus

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain were dealt a tough 0-1 defeat to European opponents Belarus last night in an international friendly match played at the Shaikh Ali bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Stadium at Muharraq Club in Arad.

Andrei Salavei scored the winning goal for the visitors on the stroke of half-time. The Bahrainis tried valiantly to find an equaliser over the latter 45 minutes of the contest but were unsuccessful.

The game was played as part of the senior men’s national football team’s preparations for the upcoming third round of qualification for the AFC Asian Cup 2023. It was their third exhibition over the last week.

They had previously defeated India 2-1 before edging past Burundi 1-0. Belarus had also already played another friendly in the Kingdom last week, defeating their Indian counterparts 3-0.

Last night’s affair marked the end of the national team’s latest training gathering held locally. Bahrain head coach Helio Sousa started the match off with a first 11 that included veteran goalkeeper Sayed Mohammed Jaafar between the posts; Amine Mohamed, Waleed Al Hayam, Faisal Ghazi and Sayed Redha Isa in defence; Mohammed Yusuf Abdulla, Mohammed Jassim Marhoon, Jassim Al Shaikh and Komail Alaswad in midfield; and Abdulla Yusuf and Mahdi Humaidan as the forwards.

Belarus’ lone goal came in the opening minute of first-half stoppage time. Dzmitry Bessmertny took a right-corner kick which was then headed towards goal by Artsem Bykau. Andrei Salavei was then in perfect position to receive the ball as he was in the face of goal unmarked, and needed only to tap it in from close range.

The Belarusians, coached by Georgy Kondratiev, later missed a glorious chance to seal the win in the 83rd minute when Valery Hramyka had a one-on-one with Jaafar. But he decided to make a short pass across the box to Salavei, who then hit a poor shot that was well off-target.

Bahrain fought until the very end of the match but could not produce any concrete scoring opportunities. The nationals are scheduled to continue their preparations for Asian Cup qualifying over the next couple of months.

Their qualifiers in Group E are set to be held in June in Kuala Lumpur, where they will take on the likes of Turkmenistan, Bangladesh and hosts Malaysia.