Riffa, Al Shabab triumph

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Defending champions Riffa and Al Shabab were both victorious last night in their week three matches of the 2022/2023 Nasser bin Hamad Bahrain Premier Football League.

Riffa came away with a narrow 1-0 win over Bahrain Club while Shabab defeated Budaiya Club 2-0. The two matches were played at separate venues.

In Riffa’s win, Bahrain international midfielder Jassim Al Shaikh scored the team’s lone goal. He was on target in the 60th minute with a header from close range.

Al Shaikh was in the right place at the right time as he was on the receiving end of a lobbed pass to the face of goal supplied by Hamad Shamsan.

That was enough to separate the two sides in the contest. Both teams had other chances to find the net, but neither could apply the finishing touches.

Following the result, Riffa claimed their second win in three matches as they improved to six points.

Bahrain Club suffered their second loss in three games and stayed on a single point at the bottom of the table.

Meanwhile, on target for Al Shabab in their triumph were Emeka Francis Atuloma and Ibakeleki Hulrich.

Both players fired in their goals in the opening 30 minutes of the game. Atuloma was first to strike in the 12th minute when he sent home a fine header into the bottom-left of the net off a right-corner kick.

Then, just 13 minutes later, Hulrich doubled Shabab’s advantage with an effort from inside the penalty area.

A cross from the right of the box went unclaimed by any Shabab player, and the ball fell to the feet of Hulrich, who made no mistake with his low shot from close range.

Shabab were able to claim their second win of the new league campaign as they improved to six points for second on the standings, while Budaiya suffered their first loss to go with two draws in their previous fixtures.

In other league matches in the third week, Muharraq maintained their lead atop the table after playing to a 1-1 stalemate with East Riffa, Manama drew 1-1 with Al Hala, and Sitra edged past Al Ahli 2-1.