Goalkeeper Abdulkarim Fardan pulled off three consecutive, fantastic saves as Riffa aced a thrilling penalty shootout 3-0 to win a pulsating King Cup quarter-final against Muharraq last night at the Khalifa Sports City Stadium.
After Riffa captain Kumail Al Aswad had put his team 1-0 ahead, Fardan dived to his right to block a scorching kick by Muharraq’s Algerian midfielder Hacene Benhaddouche.
Then, after Ali Haram made it 2-0 for Riffa by sending the ball whirring into the right hand side of the net while Muharraq captain and goalkeeper Sayed Mohamed Jaafar dived in the opposite direction, Fardan leapt to his left to fend off an Amine Benadi kick.
Riffa’s Serbian centre-back Lazar Dordevic then stepped up to take his penalty kick and made it 3-0 as he coolly sent the ball into the left of the goal while Jaafar scrambled, again, in the wrong direction.
It was now Muharraq centre-back Waleed Al Hayam’s turn. But, as he blasted the ball straight down towards the centre of the goal, Fardan, who had begun to dive to his right, stuck his left hand up and knocked the ball away, causing all his teammates to swamp him and triggering raucous celebrations in the packed stands by Riffa supporters.
Earlier, after the scoreboard read 0-0 at the end of 90 minutes of high-quality football between the two evenly-matched sides, 30 minutes of extra time also failed to yield a result.
Muharraq did come quite close to netting the first goal of the match in the 107th minute when their Costa Rican midfielder Victor Murillo chased down a through pass down the right side of the pitch with only Fardan between him and the goal only to find the Riffa goalkeeper with his right-footed attempt to tap it over him.
This was a fitting victory for Riffa, who had looked likely winners from the start as they dominated the first half, creating opportunities on at least eight occasions without being able to capitalise on them.
Muharraq, on the other hand, took their time to get going and came back strongly in the second half as they put relentless pressure on the Riffa defence – but without any luck.
Their evening was summed up when another brilliant play by Murillo, who dashed down the right of the Riffa box to send the ball scooting along the turf right across the mouth of the goal, found no one to back him up with the ball being sent spiraling to safety by a Riffa defender.
Riffa, whose extremely vocal fans had been vastly outnumbered by Muharraq supporters, will now play Al Ahli in their semi-final. Manama will play Al Hala in the other semi-final.
Al Ahli also won their quarter-final against Al Najma in the afternoon yesterday on penalties, triumphing 4-2 in the shootout after the two teams had finished 1-1 after extra time.
In a novel twist to this year’s competition, this is the first time in the tournament’s history that all four quarter-finals were decided on penalties.
On Thursday, Manama beat Sitra 5-4 in a penalty shootout in their quarterfinal after the score was tied 1-1 at the end of 120 minutes while Al Hala defeated Hidd 4-2, also on penalties, after the two teams had also finished extra time with the scoreboard reading 1-1.
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