HANDBALL – BARBAR and Al Ahli set up last night a mouth-watering, title-deciding clash for the coveted title in the 2025-26 Khalid Bin Hamad Bahrain Handball League.
Both teams secured their berths after completing two-game sweeps of their respective Golden Square semi-final series, played at Khalifa Sports City Arena in Isa Town.
Hasan Alfardan fired in the match-winning goal for Barbar as time expired in a thrilling 25-24 victory against Al Najma to send Barbar through to the final and dethrone last year’s champions.
Ahli, on the other hand, needed to go into a penalty shootout to claim a stunning, come-from-behind 35-33 win over Al Shabab in a hotly contested affair that remained tied at 31-apiece at the end of regulation.
With those results, Barbar and Ahli – both of whom entered the Golden Square as underdogs – will now meet for this season’s Khalid Bin Hamad Bahrain Handball League Crown. The championship game has yet to be scheduled by the Bahrain Handball Federation.
In Barbar’s last-gasp triumph last night, they battled hard with Najma for the full 60 minutes and a number of their players, most notably goalkeeper Issa Khalaf, came up with big plays down the stretch.
With Najma leading 24-23 and just over two minutes left on the game clock, Khalaf stopped Adel Mohammed on a fast-break attempt, giving his team the opportunity to draw level. They did just that on an Ahmed Ayyad strike on the next possession, and then Khalaf had another key save against Najma’s Mohammed Abdulredha as Barbar regained possession with a half-minute remaining.
That set the stage for Alfardan’s heroics. After Salman Al Showaikh hit the woodwork on an attempt from the right wing, game one hero Maitham Mahdi grabbed the rebound and passed off to an unmarked Alfardan, who sent the ball home from the six-metre line past Najma custodian Ali Khamis.
Alfardan’s winner signalled Barbar’s joyous celebrations as teammates stormed the court, and the referees confirmed in a video replay that the goal was scored before the final buzzer.
Meanwhile, in Ahli’s nail-biter yesterday, goalkeeper Hussain Mahfoudh made a number of key saves in the last two minutes to help his team send the contest into penalties.
After Shabab took a slim 31-30 edge, Mahfoudh made a big save on a Hussain Khamis effort, and then Ahli superstar Ali Eid brought the game level with a conversion from the penalty stripe. Mahfoudh then made two more important stops, both against Shabab’s Jassim Khamis, to preserve the deadlock and confirm the shootout.
There, Ali Mirza put Ahli ahead and then Salah Abduljaleel stopped Jassim Khamis’ ensuing effort. Qassim Qambar then fired in past Shabab’s Qassim Al Showaikh to give Ahli the two-goal cushion, although Hussain Khamis was on target for their rivals to bring Shabab back to within 32-33.
Eid was then off the mark, but Mahfoudh made up for it with a big save against Shabab’s Abdulla Salatna to keep the score unchanged. Mohammed Hameed then gave Ahli a 34-32 advantage and although Ahmed Kadhem scored for Shabab on the next penalty, Yousef Ahmed sealed the result with his series-clinching goal.
Earlier yesterday, with the score tied at 29-apiece, Hussain Khamis scored for Shabab and then stole possession before feeding Jassim Khamis for a fastbreak goal that made it 31-29. Abdulla Ali was quick to reply for Ahli, and that paved the way for Eid’s equaliser and the ensuing shootout.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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