BAHRAIN’S under-23 Olympic football team suffered a disheartening 0-2 defeat to Saudi Arabia last night in an international friendly tournament being played at Kuwait City.
After opening the three-team competition with a win against Kuwait, the Bahrainis headed into yesterday’s match with the hopes of maintaining their winning ways and ending their campaign undefeated after two games.
But the Saudis had a different plan, and goals on either side of half-time sealed them the win.
Saad Ali opened the scoring for the Saudis in the 37th minute, and then their second came 12 minutes from full time.
Bahrain conceded the first goal after some poor defending. As Saudi made a charge at goal, goalkeeper Ammar Mohammed did well leave his line and challenge for the ball, but his clearance rebounded off a Saudi player and went directly into the path of Ali, who hit a low, left-footed shot into the bottom-right corner of goal.
That was enough to give the Saudis the slim lead heading into the half-time break.
In the second half, the Bahrainis were determined to find an equaliser but struggled to find it. Goalkeeper Mohammed made some fine saves to keep things close, but not even the efforts of second-half substitutes Ahmed Al Sheroogi and Ahmed Saleh could help the Bahrainis level the proceedings.
Ali Muftah had arguably one of the best chances of the game. He had a shot in the box right in front of goal but his shot was inches wide from the right post.
Following yesterday’s result, Bahrain have wrapped up their campaign in the competition. Only one match remains, and it will be between Saudi and hosts Kuwait on Tuesday.
Bahrain’s Olympic team is coached by Samir Ben Chammam, who named a squad of 23 players for their trip to Kuwait City.
The tournament has been organised as part of the three nations’ preparations for the qualifying competition of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U23 Championship. Those qualifiers are scheduled to be held in March next year, and they will set up the roster of teams that will compete in the AFC U23 tournament that is scheduled to take place in January 2020. The event will then determine the continental representatives for the Tokyo Olympic Games later that year.