Facundo Tobares lit up the Muharraq Stadium with some South American magic last night as he scored a brace to set up Manama’s 2-0 victory over Al Ittifaq and take them into the semi-finals of the 2023-24 King Cup.
The 23-year-old Argentinian forward, who has been in prime form across competitions this season, showed why he is so highly regarded as he went about scoring two truly superlative goals.
The first came in the 33rd minute when Manama, who had put their opponents under pressure from the start of the game, found themselves in possession and a clever bit of teamwork saw the ball passed from just outside the right of the Al Ettifaq box to Manama’s other South American import, the Brazilian forward Elvinho, who had entered the penalty area from the left.
Elvinho dodged a defender and sent a cross across the mouth of the goal, past three defenders to Tobares, who tapped it into the back of the net with Al Ittifaq’s Brazilian goalkeeper Bruno Santos caught completely wrong-footed.
Having led 1-0 at half-time, Manama went 2-0 up in the 49th minute, courtesy of a fantastic effort by Tobares that was almost reminiscent of his late, great compatriot Diego Maradona’s brilliant ‘goal of the century’ against England in the quarter-final of the 1986 FIFA World Cup when the Argentinian legend took the ball from inside his own half and scored after dodging several English players and outfoxing the keeper.
Tobares almost replicated that as a header from a teammate found the ball at the feet of the Argentinian, just inside the Al Ittifaq half, who sprinted past three defenders, evaded Santos who had come charging to the top of the box, leaving the goal unattended, and sent the ball easily into the back of the net.
Manama will now face Al Ahli who defeated a battling Busaiteen, 1-0, in the other quarter-final at the Bahrain National Stadium last night, in the semi-final.
Al Ahli’s victory was set up by an early goal in just the third minute of the game by midfielder Jamal Rashed who fired in a fierce left-footed shot past three Busaiteen players with the ball zipping into the back of the net as goalkeeper Mohsin Yusuf made a despairing dive to his left.
Al Ahli maintained the pressure for the rest of the first half and, after leading 1-0 at half-time, increased their attacks while the Busaiteen defence soldiered bravely to keep them at bay.
Finally, in the 89th minute, Al Ahli had a golden opportunity to go 2-0 up but right-winger Abdulla Hashash squandered it. With the ball bouncing towards him in the Busaiteen box off a deflection by Yusuf, who had dived to save a stinging attempt by an Al Ahli player, Al Hashash had an open goal to aim at with Yusuf still sprawled on the ground but hit the right post instead with the ball bouncing across the sideline.
Busaiteen will rue their poor defensive play for the loss but will also consider themselves desperately unlucky not to have been awarded a penalty in the fourth minute of injury time when an Al Ahli player clearly deflected the ball, which was heading into their goal, with his hand.
To add insult to injury, as the Busaiteen players surrounded the referee, pleading for him to grant the penalty – which, if converted, could have made the score 1-1 and pushed the game into 30 minutes of extra time – the referee, instead, handed one of the Busaiteen players a yellow card for touching him on the shoulder.
adnan@gdnmedia.bh
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