DEFENDING champions Riffa powered to a convincing 3-1 victory over Al Ahli last night to cap the eighth week of action in the 2019-2020 Nasser bin Hamad Bahrain Premier Soccer League.
In other matches, Muharraq edged past Busaiteen 2-1 with a last-gasp goal while Manama played out a 1-1 draw against Al Najma.
Al Ahli went ahead in the 13th minute as Cameroon professional Ernest Anang scored from close range following some poor defending by Riffa.
But their celebrations were short-lived as Ali Haram equalised just three minutes later with a brilliant shot from the edge of the box that sailed into the left of the net.
Riffa continued to build their momentum and star international midfielder Komail Alaswad put them ahead on the stroke of half-time with a left-footed strike.
They sealed victory in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time when Maher bin Al Arousi slotted the ball home a precision cross from the right wing by the supremely talented Mohammed Marhoon.
It was Riffa’s fourth victory in seven games as they improved to 12 points to move to fourth in the league standings. Al Ahli suffered their fourth loss in eight contests and stay in the bottom half of the table.
Muharraq had to wait until the very end before securing all three points. Ismaeel Abdullatif fired their first goal in the 68th minute but Brazilian professional Marcos Vinicius levelled the proceedings for Busaiteen in the 79th.
Muharraq’s own player from Brazil, Everton, then supplied the heroics deep into the match, scoring a 97th-minute header from close range.
Improved
It was Muharraq’s fifth victory in seven games as they improved to 16 points and moved to second place. Busaiteen were dealt their fourth defeat in eight games and they stay on eight points and third-from-bottom.
In the other match Marcio Barbosa Vieira found the net in the 19th minute for Manama but Ali Muneer equalised for Al Najma in the 79th.
It was Manama’s fifth draw as they moved to 11 points and are in fifth place while for Al Najma it was their third draw which took them to nine points.