Emanuel scored a goal to lift Riffa past Al Shabab 1-0 in the quarter-final round first leg of the King’s Cup competition played last night at Bahrain National Stadium.
In other match, Manama defeated Muharraq 2-1.
The second leg of both matches will be played on Sunday to decide the team who will qualify for the semi-final.
The match was poised for a draw until Emanuel hit the winner in the 76th minute.
Mohammed Al Romaihi was the hero for Manama when he scored two goals to stun tournament favourites Muharraq and get the advantage in their own play-off for the most precious football competition in Bahrain.
Goals
All the three goals came in the first half of the match.
Manama scored two goals in the first 17 minutes with the first coming in the fifth minute through Al Romaihi, who completed his brace with another one in the 17th minute.
Muharraq reduced the margin to 2-1 in the 24th minute through Saleh Abdulhameed.
Muharraq were down to 10 men when Zeyad Al Derbali was sent off in the 45th minute for a bad foul against Manama’s Isa Jehad, as the first half ended 2-1 for Manama.
Muharraq tried to equalise in the second half as they had couple of chances to score. Manama, however, effectively dictated the tempo of the match the rest of the way on way to victory.