Exciting Bahraini qualification to the Golden Square

The match between Kuwait and Bahrain ended with the latter’s 4-2 victory in the third round of Group B of the 24th Gulf Championship, in the game held at Khalifa International Stadium, to make the Bahraini Red hit a date with Iraq in the semi-finals of the tournament.

With the whistle of Emirati referee Ammar Ali Al-Junaibi, the confrontation began with a clear desire from Portuguese Hélio Sousa and the national Thamer Enad to score early. Kuwait relied on Yousef Nasser, Faisal Zayed, Bader Al-Mutawa and Reza Hani in the front lines, while Sousa chose Mohammed Saad Al-Rumaihi in the attack, succeeded by Ali Madan, Jassim Sheikh and Kamil Al-Aswad.

Amid the chants of the Kuwaiti crowd, competition intensified in the midfield, but the goals of Hamid Al-Qallaf and Mohammed Jafar were far from threatening.

Kuwaiti player Talal Sulaiman Al-Fadhil was injured and forced to leave the stadium. Enad decided to enter Fahad Al-Ansari at the 33rd minute, and Yousef Nasser missed an opportunity to score because of the ingenuity of Jaafar.

The Kuwaiti team then suffered a blow through the injury of the captain Bader Al-Mutawa which made Thamer Enad intervene again for another emergency substitution.

The Bahraini team, before the whistle of the first half, stung the goal of Al-Qallaf with a surprising goal scored by midfielder Ali Mudon. Amid great joy, his teammate Kamil Al-Aswad almost doubled the yield without the skill of Al-Qallaf and ended the first half 1-0 for the Red.

Kuwait started the second half with more support from the crowd, and almost had a draw in the beginning had Sayed Jaafar did not intervene and Madan responded with a chance to the Red.

Before the first quarter of the game ended, Kuwait had a penalty that they successfully translated against Jaafar’s goal.

At the 65th minute, the Kuwaiti team scored the second goal through Yousef Nasser, but the technique of Video Assistant Referee intervened and cancelled this goal and Sousa threw Sayed Diya’s card.

The Bahraini team felt the danger and rushed to the areas of Azraq, and 20 minutes before the end Jassim Ahmed Al Sheikh fired a surprising shot from outside the line of 18 which inhabited the Kuwaiti net. Joy spread among the players of the Red.

Thamer Enad threw Shabib Al Khaldi’s card in the place of midfielder Reza Hani in order to activate the front areas to catch up with the result. Shabib missed an easy opportunity for adjustment after sending his ball off the pitch.

Sousa knew that this result was not enough to reach the golden box and pushed forward Thiago Fernandez along with Mohamed Saad Al-Rumaihi in the front. Thiago had the opportunity to go alone with the ball, but the ball went to the right bar of the goal.

Thiago re-emerged seven minutes from the end and scored the third goal for the Bahraini team after taking advantage of a corner from substitute Zia, but substitute Ahmed Jaber Zanki cut the gap directly to 3-2.

Kamil Al Aswad went alone with the ball at the Kuwaiti’s goal, but Qallaf shone again.

Iraqi referee Muhannad Qassim raised 5 minutes to bring the happy gospel to the Bahraini Red, who scored the fourth through Thiago to end the confrontation for Bahrain 4-2, and qualify for the Golden Square after Oman’s loss at Abdullah Al Khalifa Stadium 3-1 to Saudi Arabia.