Bahrain bag futsal bronze!

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s women’s national futsal team bagged the bronze medals yesterday in the NSDF Women’s Futsal Championship 2023, which came to a close in Bangkok.

The Bahrainis captured third place over all in the six-nation competition after defeating their counterparts from China 2-1 in the bronze medal contest.

Lilia Javed Sabkar scored both of Bahrain’s goals within a five-minute span in the first half. The nationals conceded the lone consolation for the Chinese in the concluding 20-minute period.

Bahrain joined Japan and hosts Thailand on the podium. The Japa n e s e captured t h e gold medals after beating the Thais 5-2 in the final.

The Bahrainis opened the scoring with nine minutes left in the first half on a brilliant two-on-one between Shaikha Al Anood Al Khalifa and Lilia.

On a quick counter, Shaikha Al Anood provided a perfectly timed assist to Lilia as she made her way into the penalty area, and Lilia made no mistake with her shot from close range, which she slotted into the bottom-left corner of goal.

Just five minutes later, Bahrain made it two and Lilia completed her brace.

A shot from long range by Bahrain’s Hessa Al Isa was stopped by a defender, and the ball rebounded to Manar Ebrahim, who had another attempt from right outside the area.

Manar’s shot was kept out by China goalkeeper Danping Liu, and the loose ball fell right at the feet of Lilia just a metre away from goal.

Lilia tried to fire in past Liu and did so just enough to get the ball over the line for the referee to award the nationals the two-goal advantage, which they took into the interval.

The Chinese were able to get a goal back five minutes after the rest art with a goal from Jiao Tian from close range. Her teammate Yaoxiang Ke hit a shot from long range, which bounced off the body of Bahrain’s Amera Bader.

The ball went into the path of Tian on the left of goal, and she slotted home from close range.

The Bahrainis were awarded their bronze medals in the awards presentation and closing ceremony that followed yesterday’s final. Bahrain, coached by Lino Gomes from Brazil, competed in the tournament with a 14-player squad.

Aside from Lilia, Shaikha Al Anood, Hessa, Manar and Amera, the other players are skipper Yasmeen Fayez, Rose Fayez, Fatima Hamad, Dalal Abdulla, Zahra Nezar, Kholoud Sale h , Maryam Abdulla, Iman Ramadan and Rawan Al Ali.

Bahrain were one of five national teams that competed in the tournament.

The others were Japan, Thailand and China, along with Indonesia. Capital Futsal Team from Australia rounded off the participants.