AL HIDD and East Riffa registered convincing victories last night to kick off the eighth week of action in the 2019-2020 Nasser bin Hamad Bahrain Premier Soccer League.
Both winners were on target on either side of half-time in their respective matches, with Hidd defeating Al Shabab 2-0 and East Riffa beating Al Hala with the same margin.
In Hidd’s win, Senegalese professional Mamadou Drame and Ahmed Mirza were on target.
Mamadou, as he is more popularly known, opened their account in the 39th minute after pouncing on a rebound following a saved free-kick from teammate Sayed Mohammed Adnan.
Mirza scored their second goal just 11 minutes into the second-half. It was a mirror image of the first goal, Mirza latching onto a rebound off a free-kick and then firing home from close range.
The win helped Hidd strengthen their place at the top of the league table with their sixth victory in eight matches and moving to 19 points.
Shabab, on the other hand, suffered their fifth loss in eight games and remain second-from-last with seven points.
In the other match, Baqer Hawsawi and Brazilian professional Luiz Fernando Correa Sales were on target for East Riffa against Al Hala.
Dream
Hawsawi gave his team a dream start scoring in the fifth minute. He took advantage of a poor back pass to Al Hala goalkeeper, intercepted the ball before sending it home from an acute angle.
East Riffa held on to the slim advantage for the rest of the game before doubling the lead four minutes from full time.
Luiz received a pass inside the penalty area from Mohammed Al Rumaihi and hit a brilliant left-footed strike past the goalkeeper.
It was East Riffa’s fourth win in eight games and they improved to 13 points. They stormed to third spot on the table, behind leaders Hidd and Muharraq.
Hala suffered their fifth loss in eight games and remain at the bottom of the standings.
League action continues tonight with an exciting fixture between defending champions Riffa and Al Ahli, who are currently fifth and sixth, respectively.