FOOTBALL – Ali Madan headed in a late winner for Riffa in their hard-earned 1-0 victory over A’ali last night in matchweek 18 of the 2025-26 Nasser Bin Hamad Bahrain Premier Football League.
Madan scored in the 90th minute off a cross from the left of the box delivered by Brazilian teammate Rodrigo Yuri Pires Franca.
The unmarked Bahrain national team superstar made no mistake with his effort, which was enough to separate the two sides in the tightly contested affair, played at Khalifa Sports City Stadium in Isa Town.
Riffa had a majority of the chances in the game, but in the first half could not beat A’ali’s in-form goalkeeper Omar Salem, who made a number of key saves.
His series of stops included a pair that came on shots from close range by Riffa’s Wellington Moreira minutes before the break, helping send the two teams into the locker rooms deadlocked.
After the re-start, they each continued their hunt for goal and Diego Cardoso Nogueira came close for A’ali in the 77th minute but his attempt went inches wide of the right post.
Riffa’s Vinicius Vargas dos Santos then hit the crossbar in the 80th minute following a pass from teammate Sayed Hashem Issa.
Those close efforts set the stage for Madan’s winner, which earned Riffa their 11th triumph of the season as they improved to 37 points in third place – behind only defending champions Muharraq and fellow-title hopefuls Al Khaldiya – with only four rounds of action remaining.
A’ali suffered their seventh defeat but stayed fourth on the table with 25 points.
In yesterday’s other fixture played at the National Stadium in Riffa, Al Ahli battled past bottom-ranked Bahrain Club 2-1.
Abdulla Al Hashash and Faisal Hasan Hejair were both on target for the winners, while Jassim Mohamed Jawad scored for Bahrain Club before being sent off minutes after his goal, reducing his side to 10 men for more than an hour.
Al Hashash put his team in front in the ninth minute with a header from the edge of the six-yard box off a corner-kick.
Jawad equalised four minutes later with another header from close range.
He received a headed pass from teammate Sultan Mansoor Alsalatneh and then his attempt was deflected off the thigh of Ahli’s Ivorian professional Hamed Junior Toure before going into the net.
But Jawad was then given a yellow card in the 15th minute for a dangerous tackle against Ahli’s Atton Paved Job Bah, also from Ivory Coast.
However, following a VAR review and seeing that Jawad made contact with his studs on Job Bah’s ankle, the referee overturned the yellow and changed it to a direct red card.
Al Hashash found the net again in the 30th minute following a cross from the left by Husain Jaafar Haroona, but the goal was disallowed for an offside infraction.
Hejair then gave Ahli back the advantage four minutes on after a fine pass from Al Hashash that set him up perfectly in the face of goal.
Hejair made the most of his opportunity and slotted home past Bahrain Club custodian Sayed Mohsen Yusuf.
Ahli rose to 23 points with their sixth win to climb to seventh place, while Bahrain Club lost for the 15th time and stayed last with seven points.
The 18th matchweek of the season wraps up tonight with two more fixtures on schedule.
At 5.25pm, Malkiya and Al Shabab lock horns at the National Stadium, to be followed at 7.35pm by Khaldiya going up against Sitra at Khalifa Sports City Stadium.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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