Olympic team hit nine past Thai club in friendly

TDT | Manama                                   

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s under-23 Olympic football team posted an impressive 9-0 victory over Thai club Prachinburi FC yesterday in a friendly match played as part of their ongoing overseas training camp in Bangkok.

Hussain Abdulkarim, Khalifa Al Lafi and Hassan Abdulnabi all scored two goals apiece in the win, while Salman Abdulla, Ahmed Dia and Ali Mohammed Redha added a goal each.

The nationals, coached by Dario Basic of Croatia, are currently in their camp preparing for their upcoming qualifiers for the 2024 AFC U23 Asian Cup, scheduled to take place next month.

This training period is scheduled to continue until 16 August. The under-23s have a 28-player squad at their camp. Aside from Abdulkarim, Al Lafi, Abdulnabi, Abdulla, Dia and Redha, the team also includes Mustafa Al Salem, Omar Saber, Hussein Harouneh, Abdulla Freih, Abdulla Al Subaie, Abdulrahman Al Obaidly, Adel Al Rumaihi, Saleh Al Zubaidi, Mubarak Mohammed, Abdulla Al Khalasi, Mohammed Abdul Qayyum, Ahmed Kamel, Salman Adel, Khalil Ebrahim, Ahmed Musalam, Hassan Issa, Ahmed Abdulhameed, Hussein Al Aker, Yasseen Karim, Salem Al Dosari, Salem Hussein and Sayed Jawad Haider.

Bahrain’s group matches in the qualifiers are set to be held in the Kingdom. The nationals are in Group D with Japan, Palestine and Pakistan. There are 11 groups in all, with 10 comprising four nations and one featuring three.

Each group will host their matches at a centralised venue. Bahrain have qualified just once in the previous five editions of the AFC U-23 Asian Cup. That was in the 2020 event held in Thailand, when they did not make it past the group stage.