FOOTBALL – A SUPERB goal by Ali Madan in the dying moments led Bahrain to a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Malaysia in their second Group E game of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in Al Rayyan, Qatar, last night, netting the Reds three crucial points from their first win in the tournament.
Madan’s moment of brilliance came in the fifth minute of injury time after the regulation 90 minutes had ended without either side being able to get on the board.
Bahrain had been awarded a corner from the right and, after the ball soared into the scrum of several Malaysian and Bahraini players in front of goalkeeper Syihan Hamzi, one of the defenders headed it away from the box but found Madan lying in wait just outside.
The winger had only a few seconds to react and hit a low, left-footed shot that resulted in the ball somehow threading through a couple of Malaysian defenders and missing Bahrain striker Abdulla Yusuf Helal, who adroitly removed his left leg from its path at the last instant, before nestling in the right-hand corner of the net with Hamzi, clearly unsighted by the players in front of him, diving to his left too late to stop it.
The Bahraini players and a large contingent of their supporters, who had packed into half the 15,000-seat arena, erupted in delight as did head coach Juan Antonio Pizzi who was so excited that he almost hugged one of the match officials before turning around and embracing his gleeful support staff.
“We deserved to win,” a pleased Pizzi said at a Press conference afterwards.
“It’s true that we won at the last moment but it was not a matter of luck. We deserved the win. We may have scored at the last minute but the goal could have come earlier, given the many chances we had in the match.”
The much-needed win, after Bahrain lost their opening game 3-1 to South Korea last week, has pushed the Reds into third place in the four-team table with three points, behind Jordan and South Korea, who battled to a 2-2 draw earlier yesterday and both have four points each with the Jordanians at the top of the table because of goal difference.
The win has also boosted Bahrain’s chances of qualifying for the round of 16 – Pizzi’s stated first aim – while Malaysia, who also had huge support in the stands last night, have seen their second defeat in a row, after a 4-0 drubbing by Jordan in their first game, end their hopes.
Earlier, Bahrain started strongly in the first half but it was Malaysia who came close to taking the lead in the seventh minute with Dion Cools sending his shot wide off a long throw-in from Corbin Ong.
Soon afterwards, Malaysia threatened again but Bahrain goalkeeper Ebrahim Lutfallah made a fine diving save to his left off a powerful attempt by midfielder Arif Aiman in the 15th minute.
Ten minutes later, Madan had the chance to put Bahrain ahead but hit the ball straight to Hamzi followed seconds later by Malaysian defender Matthew Davies sending the ball over the Bahraini goal from the right.
In the 31st minute, Bahraini midfielder Komail Al Aswad almost gave his team the lead after he entered the Malaysian box with only Hamzi in front of him but was tackled by a defender with the ball bouncing slowly over the goalkeeper’s sprawled legs and trickling toward the goal-line before being cleared away at the last second by defender Dominic Tan.
Al Aswad was in action again in the 42nd minute when he sent the ball curling towards the Malaysian goal from a free kick from the right but sprightly forward Abdulla Al Hashash headed the ball over the bar.
With four minutes of injury time added on to the first half, Al Hashash saw another header go just wide of the left goal-post.
Bahrain continued to attack in the second half with star forward Helal brought on in the 55th minute for Al Hashash and the move almost paid dividends seconds into the tall player’s arrival on the pitch but his diving header off a cross from the right by Mohamed Adil went just wide of the right goalpost.
Pizzi rang in more changes, bringing Jassim Al Shaikh on for Moses Atede; Ali Hasan Isa for Al Aswad and Mahdi Humaidan for Mohamed Marhoon as Bahrain intensified their attacks and kept the ball mostly in the Malaysian half.
Helal had two more chances to put Bahrain ahead but a cross from the right in the 65th minute proved too long for him as he made a desperate, sliding attempt to reach it just yards from the Malaysian goal before he jumped as high as he could, ten minutes later, to try and head the ball into the net but failed to reach it.
As the game ticked towards full time, the Malaysians, urged on by a very animated head coach Kim Pan-gon, suddenly broke through the Bahraini defence in the 89th minute, giving Davies the opportunity to line up a shot at goal from the right off a cross from Akhyar Rashid but he hit the ball too sweetly and it went over the bar, much to the disappointment of the several thousand Malaysian fans in the crowd.
Two minutes later, it was the turn of the Bahraini players and their supporters to let out a collective groan of disappointment as Isa moved clear of the Malaysian defence to the left but sent the ball straight into Hamzi’s left thigh, who then clutched on to it gratefully.
A few minutes later, however, that disappointment had turned into elation as the Bahrain players did a lap of honour to thank their fans for showing up in such large numbers to support them.
Bahrain’s final Group E game is against Jordan on Thursday which they will want to win to ensure that they qualify for the round of 16 as one of the top two teams in the group.
According to the tournament format, the top two teams from each of the six four-team groups go into the next round, along with the four best third-placed teams.
“We need to prepare extremely well for our game against Jordan,” Pizzi added.
“We won this game against Malaysia but we’ll have to do more in our upcoming match to get those three points because we expect it to be a very tough encounter.”
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