Riffa downed Kuwait’s Al Arabi club, 2-1, last night in their fourth Group C match of the 2023-24 AFC Cup at the Khalifa Sports City Stadium to maintain their unbeaten record in the competition.
Riffa’s second consecutive victory over Al Arabi – following their 3-0 win in Kuwait last month – was their third win of the season, to go along with a 1-1 draw against Iraq’s Al Zawra’a Club. The Bahraini club have retained their position at the top of the four-team table with 10 points, three ahead of the Iraqi club and six points clear of Al Arabi who have four.
Lebanese club Najmeh, who have lost three and drawn one of their four games, languish at the bottom with a solitary point.
The home team started confidently and nearly went ahead in the third minute when defender Hazza Ali sent a cross from the right to forward Sayed Hashim, whose sliding attempt deflected the ball past the left goalpost.
Six minutes later, Riffa launched another attack on the Al Arabi goal with Brazilian forward Vinicius Vargas sending a deep ball to Hashim, only for him to deflect it to captain Komail Al Aswad who passed it back to the forward with Hashim’s resulting lob sailing over Al Arabi goalkeeper Sulaiman Abdulghafoor and the crossbar.
Al Arabi retaliated in the 11th minute with midfielder Hamza Khabba sending a cross to midfielder Bader Tareq whose stinging shot was well-saved by Riffa goalkeeper Abdulkarim Fardan.
Fardan was tested again by Tareq six minutes later when the Al Arabi midfielder sent the ball curling toward the goal off a free kick with the Riffa goalkeeper diving to his left to cut it off.
Al Arabi had a good opportunity to go ahead in the 22nd minute but Fardan foiled another blistering attempt, this time from midfielder Bandar Al Salama.
Three minutes later, though, it was Riffa who went 1-0 up after Vargas made a spectacular run past three defenders before lobbing the ball over Abdulghafoor and into the goal.
Riffa were unlucky not to score again 15 minutes later after a fierce shot by Al Aswad bounced off the crossbar.
The scoreboard read 1-0 for Riffa at half-time and the Bahraini side didn’t waste time making it 2-0 early in the second half when, in the 52nd minute, Hazza Ali sprinted down the left flank before sending a cross across the mouth of the goal to Hashim who calmly tapped the ball past a wrong-footed Abdulghafoor into the back of the net.
Riffa kept up the pressure on the visitors for the rest of the game with Abdulghafoor having to endure a particularly torrid time in the last 20 minutes of regulation time with midfielder Majdi Attar, Vinicus and fellow Brazilian Joel Vinicius – who had come on as a substitute in the 65th minute – testing him repeatedly.
Al Arabi, however, managed to give themselves a chance of somehow managing a draw in the 87th minute when Senegalese forward Mamadou Thiam pounced on a pass from Walid Sabbar to send the ball skidding past Fardan to make it 2-1.
But that was all the joy they would experience as the final whistle was finally blown after four minutes of injury time.
Riffa’s next encounter is with Najmeh on November 28 in Bahrain while Al Arabi face Al Zawra’a on the same day in Kuwait.
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