FOOTBALL – BAHRAIN’S under-23 Olympic football team registered a narrow 1-0 victory over their counterparts from Bangladesh last night in a friendly match played in the kingdom.
Issa Abdulla scored the lone goal of the contest, held at the Bahrain Football Association (BFA) pitches in Riffa.
The game was attended by BFA board member and financial secretary Shaikh Ahmed bin Isa Al Khalifa, Bangladesh Ambassador to Bahrain Md Rais Hasan Sarower, and other BFA officials.
The tune-up was part of the Bahrainis’ preparations for the upcoming AFC U23 Asian Cup 2026 Qualifiers, which are scheduled to be held early next month.
The under-23 nationals, coached by Bahraini tactician Ali Abdulmajeed, are one of 44 Olympic teams entered. They will be playing in 11 groups, each to be held in a centralised location.
Bahrain are in Group H alongside Qatar, India, and Brunei Darussalam. Their games will be played in Doha.
At the end of a single round-robin, each group winner and the four best best-ranked runners-up will book their tickets to next year’s competition proper and join hosts Saudi Arabia, who are staging the event for the first time.
Next year’s AFC U23 Asian Cup will be its seventh edition. Bahrain have qualified for the tournament just once in the past – in the 2020 event held in Bangkok, Thailand.
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