Al Khaldiya falter in AFC Cup bid

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain league champions Al Khaldiya came up agonisingly short last night in their bid to book a berth in the 2023/2024 AFC Cup..

The Bahrainis narrowly lost 2-3 to Al Nahda of Oman in their play-off match yesterday at Shaikh Ali bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Stadium at Muharraq Club in Arad.

It was Khaldiya’s lone chance to join Riffa Club as the Kingdom’s two representatives in this year’s competition.

The AFC Cup is the annual continental club competition under the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for top teams not competing in the AFC Champions League.

Riffa have an automatic berth in the tournament being the national league champions from the 2021/2022 season.

Issam Al Sabhi, Omar Al Malki and Samir Al Sinaidi were on target for Nahda in last night’s game.

Isameel Abdullatif and Seydina Dabo, both of whom came on after the half-time break, netted Khaldiya’s consolation goals.

Khaldiya’s Algerian-French head coach Miloud Hamdi started an 11 that included Ammar Mohammed in goal, along with Mohammed Adel, Ahmed Bughammar, Dhurgham Ismaeel, Aymen Harzi, Mohammed Hardan, Gleison Moreira, skipper Mahdi Humaidan, Abdulla Al Hazaa, Dominique Mendy and Samy Frioui.

Al Sabhi opened the scoring in just the seventh minute.

He pounced on an opportunity from close range after teammates Salah Al Yahya and Al Malki took advantage of some porous Khaldiya defending Al Yahya evaded his Khaldiya markers on the left wing and sent in a cross, which Al Malki fumbled, but the ball went directly to Al Sabhi in the face of goal.

He made no mistake with his effort and it was enough to send his team into the break with the lead.

After the restart, Khaldiya’s Ismaeel had a brilliant chance in the 50th minute, but his shot from just outside the six-yard box went inches over the crossbar.

Bughammar also came close the very next possession, but his shot flew across goal out of bounds.

Al Malki then doubled Nahda’s advantage in the 55th minute, again after some questionable defending from the Bahrainis.

Al Yahya had a good approach from the left and supplied a low cross for Al Sabhi, who could not create a shot. Al Malki was then first to the loose ball, needing to simply tap it home into the net. Abdullatif got one back for Khaldiya with his very first touch in the 69th minute.

The veteran striker received a short pass from Harzi from the right of the box and then in one fluid motion, turned and fired into the roof of the net from an acute angle to cut the Omanis’ advantage into half.

Mahdi Abduljabbar, also coming on after the interval, had a chance to equalise in the 74th minute, but his shot was inches wide of the right post.

Nahda appeared to put the game away in the 77th minute when substitute Al Sinaidi slotted home on a counterattack into the bottom-left corner of goal.

But with seven minutes to go in regular time, Dabo gave Khaldiya a glimmer of hope after scoring on a header off a cross from the left.

It was too late, however, as Nahda did enough to come away with the win.

Khaldiya’s match was one of seven play-off games for this season’s AFC Cup. The draw for the group stage is scheduled for tomorrow, with Riffa taking part.

The AFC Cup matches kick off next month and the preliminary round continues until December after six match days played.

The zonal semi-finals are then set for February and the zonal finals for April, while the inter-zone play-off semis are scheduled for March and the inter-zone play-off final for April.

The AFC Cup final will then be played in May.

Muharraq are the only Bahraini club to have ever won the title.

They did so twice in 2008 and 2021. They were also runners-up in 2006.