FOOTBALL – Riffa will take on Oman’s Al Nahda club in the second leg of their 2023-24 AFC Cup West Zonal semi-final tonight at the Sultan Qaboos Sport Complex in Muscat.
The two sides battled to a 1-1 draw in the first leg at the Khalifa Sports City Stadium last Monday with Riffa clearly disappointed at not being able to close out a win in front of a home crowd.
The Bahraini club took the lead in the 62nd minute through an Ali Haram header but Al Nahda equalised 15 minutes later through midfielder Inters Gui. Later, Riffa captain Komail Al Aswad and Haram both missed opportunities to score in the dying moments.
This time, Al Nahda will be hoping that home conditions enable them to get the better of the visitors, although Riffa have not lost to the Omani club in their past three AFC Cup encounters.
Meanwhile, Riffa, who reached the 2022 AFC Cup West Zonal final before losing to eventual champions Al Seeb, have had a most impressive run in the competition this season, winning four of their Group C matches, drawing one and losing only one.
They began the 2023-24 season in confident style by defeating Lebanese side Nejmeh 2-0 at home last September before being held to a 1-1 draw by Iraq’s Al Zawraa, also at home, two weeks later.
Three weeks later, Riffa beat Kuwait’s Al Arabi club 3-0 in an away game before overcoming them again, 2-1, in the return encounter at home in early November.
Then, at the end of November, the Bahraini side administered a 6-1 thrashing to Nejmeh in the return encounter, again at home, before travelling to Basra in mid-December where Al Zawraa handed them a 2-1 defeat, Riffa’s first in the competition this season.
Despite the loss, though, Riffa still topped the four-team table with 13 points from their six games, setting up their semi-final clash with Al Nahda.
The Bahraini club are now just one game away from reaching the West Zonal final for the second time but, with Al Nahda having proved to be difficult opponents in the first semi-final leg, will have to be at their absolute best to overcome the hosts tonight.
If Riffa do manage to beat Al Nahda, they will face either Iraq’s Al Kahrabaa Club or Lebanon’s Al Ahed FC – who play the second leg of their semi-final tomorrow – in the West Zonal final in April.
The game kicks off at 7pm, Bahrain time.
&uuid=(email))