Muharraq and Al Najma reached the final of the 41st King Cup football championship after defeating Riffa and Ettihad respectively in their second leg semi-finals at Bahrain National Stadium in Isa Town last night.
The final has been rescheduled from February 17 to next Thursday at 6.30pm at Bahrain National Stadium.
The first leg semi-final matches had ended in draws, with the Al Najma-Ettihad encounter ending goalless and Muharraq holding Riffa 1-1.
Muharraq’s clash with Riffa drew a large number of supporters of both teams, and the Reds proved that they deserved to be in the final of the competition they had won 32 times.
After a goalless first half, Muharraq opened the scoring in the 61st minute when defender Zeyad Al Derbali headed a corner kick into the net.
Muharraq made it 2-0 in the 68th minute, when defender Waleed Al Hayyam sent a timely cross to Libyan midfielder Mohammed Sola who hit a powerful shot into the top of the net past Riffa goalkeeper Abdulla Al Ka’abi.
Riffa had a number of chances to reduce the margin but Muharraq’s defenders and goalkeeper Sayed Mohammed Jaffar put paid to their hopes.
In the other match, Brazilian defender-midfielder Silva led Al Najma to the final with an injury-time goal against Ettihad.
The first half ended goalless with neither of the teams having any serious chance to score.
Al Najma’s performance improved in the second half as they went all out for a goal against Ettihad who seemed keen to take the game into penalty shoot-out.
However, Al Najma shocked Ettihad with an injury-time goal scored with a fine header by Brazilian Silva after a fine cross from Ali Madan.