FOOTBALL – BAHRAIN’S Sitra suffered a heavy 1-4 away defeat to Al Ain of the UAE last night in their opening match of the 2025-26 AGCFF Gulf Club Champions League.
The Bahrainis fell behind early on following an own goal but equalised right before the half. In a decisive stretch in the game’s closing minutes, however, Sitra conceded three more goals to their Emirati opponents, much to the delight of their home crowd at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
This year’s Gulf Club Champions League is the second edition of the Arab Gulf Cup Football Federation (AGCFF) tournament.
Sitra and Al Ain are in the same pool as Zakho from Iraq and Al Qadsia from Kuwait in the competition’s preliminary round.
Sitra will be looking to bounce back from yesterday’s setback when they go up against Zakho at home on October 22. They then face Qadsia at home on November 4, before playing the Kuwaitis away on December 23. On February 10 of next year, they host Al Ain and then complete their Group A schedule away against Zakho on February 18.
In last night’s contest, Sitra head coach Isa Al Saadoun fielded a starting 11 that included Yusuf Habib in goal, Spaniard Carlos Alberto Fernandez, Ibrahim Jamal, Brazilians Juda Aguiar da Silva and Maicon Douglas Goulart, Yemeni Abdulwasea Almatari, Ali Nasser Hasan, Yaya Al Hadj Ousman, Imran Ilyas Adam, Vincent Emmanuel, and Malloum Hassane Ousmane.
They fell behind in the 22nd minute when Jamal inadvertently guided the ball into his own net following a pass from the right of the box by Al Ain’s Houssine Rahimi.
But four minutes before the break, Sitra drew level through Fernandez. He headed in off a rebound after an Ousmane attempt hit the crossbar. The goal was originally disallowed as the linesman had raised his flag for offside, but following a lengthy VAR check that lasted nearly five minutes, the equaliser was confirmed and the two teams headed into the break deadlocked.
Al Ain then closed the match strong and in the 82nd minute went back ahead. Yussif Suleiman sent the ball home from the face of goal after Sitra failed to deal with a long cross from the right.
Six minutes later, Rahimi made it 3-1 after brilliantly controlling a pass with his head on a quick counter-attack, and then slotting into the net with his second touch.
The Emiratis then applied the nail in the coffin in the first minute of second-half stoppage time through Rilwanu Haliru Sarki, who hit a fine strike from right of goal off an assist from teammate Hazem Mohammad.
Sitra are the lone team flying the Bahrain flag in this year’s AGCFF Gulf Club Champions League. They are in the fray after finishing an impressive third amongst 12 clubs in the 2024-25 Nasser bin Hamad Bahrain Premier Football League.
Group B in the preliminaries features Al Shabab from Saudi Arabia, Al Nahda from Oman, Al Rayyan from Qatar, and Al Tadamun Hadramaut from Yemen.
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