FOOTBALL – BAHRAIN head coach Dragan Talajic expressed his disappointment following yet another late defeat against China in Fifa World Cup 2026 qualifying.
The Croatian tactician likened their 0-1 loss to the Chinese on Tuesday at Chongqing Longxing Football Stadium to their disheartening setback – with a same score line – in their previous meeting at the National Stadium in Riffa in November of last year.
On both occasions, China scored their winner in the game’s closing minutes to escape with the full three points.
Talajic had described the loss in their first encounter as “really painful”, and again had to deal with a similar heartbreaking outcome in their concluding assignment of continental qualification.
“We tried to play good football – most of the time we controlled the game, but at the end of the story, same like what happened in Bahrain,” said a clearly dejected Talajic during his very brief post-game Press conference.
“In the last minutes, we made some mistakes,” he added. “Congratulations one more time for China.”
Wang Yudong fired in a late penalty for the hosts on Tuesday after Bahrain’s Hussain Al Eker was called for a hand ball just seconds after coming on as a substitute. Yudong’s spot kick in the third minute of second-half stoppage time was enough to separate the two sides and give the home team the victory.
In November of last year, Zhang Yuning was the goalscorer for the Chinese. He struck in the 91st minute to give them the narrow 1-0 win in the kingdom.
A few minutes prior to that decisive strike, a goal from Bahrain’s Ali Haram was disallowed after a VAR review ruled him as being offside.
The Bahrainis thus ended the third round of Asian qualification in last place on the Group C table with six points. They finished with six losses in their 10 matches to go with just one win and three draws.
China finished ahead of them with nine points following their third victory – two of which were against the Bahrainis.
In the past, Bahrain came close to qualifying for the Fifa World Cup in its 2006 and 2010 editions.
For the 2006 finals, the nationals lost to Trinidad and Tobago 1-2 on aggregate in the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf)-Asian Football Confederation (AFC) play-off; while for the 2010 event, the Bahrainis lost to New Zealand 0-1 on aggregate in the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC)-AFC play-off. Both times featured different qualifying formats.
The Bahrainis were then eliminated from the third round of AFC qualification for the 2014 world cup, and then were knocked out from the second round for the 2018 competition. For the 2022 edition, Bahrain did not make it past the second stage of the Asian qualifiers.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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