Riffa and Al Hidd have reached the final of the King Cup football competition after emerging overall winners in their semi-final second leg matches at the Bahrain National Stadium in Riffa last night.
Al Hidd drew with Al Hala 2-2 to win 5-2 overall while Riffa defeated Muharraq 1-0 to make it a 4-1 victory.
Riffa, who had won the first leg 3-1, had reasons to cheer after just 10 minutes of the game when the referee showed the red card to Muharraq’s striker Ismael Abdullatif for a foul against Riffa defender Sayed Redha Isa.
Riffa couldn’t make use of that advantage in the first half, which ended 0-0. They managed to score in the 56th minute with a fine header by Hamad Shamsan, which was enough to take them to the final.
Al Hala, who had gone down 3-0 in the first leg, were the first to score against Hidd yesterday when Abbas Sari struck in the 34th minute. Hidd equalised in the 58th minute through Sa’ad Al Amer. Hala, however, regained the lead when Mubarak Salim scored in the 74th minute. Hidd regrouped and shattered Hala’s hopes with an injury time goal by Abdulwahab Al Malood.
This will be Hidd’s first King Cup final since the 2014-2015 season, when they won the title beating Busaiteen 2-0.