Manama suffer tough loss to Hilal of Sudan

TDT | Manama                                        

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

Bahrain’s Manama Club were handed a disheartening 0-3 loss to Al Hilal Omdurman of Sudan last night in the first-leg of their opening qualifying round for the 2023 King Salman Clubs Cup.

The tournament is the region’s top competition organised by the Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA), and it is also known as the Arab Club Champions Cup.

Scoring against Manama in yesterday’s match, which was played at Al Hilal Stadium in the Sudanese city of Omdurman, were Fabrice Ngoma, Gludy McCabe and Mohammed Abdelrahman.

The Bahrainis now have a mammoth task in the return leg, which is scheduled to be played in Bahrain on April 10. Meanwhile, the Kingdom’s other club in the tournament, Muharraq, kick off their campaign tonight against Al Seeb of Oman.

Their first-leg clash will take place at Shaikh Ali bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Stadium at Muharraq Club in Arad. The return fixture will then be held in Muscat on April 4.

After this first qualification stage, the 12 winners will advance to a second phase, which will then determine the six teams that will move on to the group stage, where 10 teams have already entered directly.

These sides include champion clubs from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia.