FOOTBALL – AL Khaldiya were crowned champions last night of the 2024-25 His Majesty the King’s Cup – Bahrain’s richest annual football tournament.
Khaldiya secured the title – despite playing more than an hour with just 10 men – for only the second time in the competition’s history.
They overcame a rough start to post a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over a battling Sitra at Khalifa Sports City Stadium in Isa Town.
Bahrain national team star Mahdi Abduljabbar supplied the decisive goal in the 77th minute to cap a remarkable fightback by Khaldiya, who fell behind by two goals in the opening half.
His Majesty King Hamad’s humanitarian work and youth affairs representative and Supreme Council for Youth and Sports (SCYS) chairman Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, and SCYS first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman, and Bahrain Olympic Committee president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa were in attendance at the match.
Shaikh Nasser and Shaikh Khalid later handed out the awards to both Khaldiya and Sitra.
Khadliya chairman Mahmood Janahi was on hand to receive this year’s HM the King’s Cup from Shaikh Nasser and Shaikh Khalid.
Khaldiya were making their second appearance in the tournament final, having also won the prestigious trophy in the 2021-2022 season for the first time. Sitra, on the other hand, marked their debut participation in the championship game.
Sitra were first to get onto the scoreboard with a penalty in the 27th minute converted by Brazilian Maicon Douglas Teixeira Goulart. They were awarded the spot kick after Khaldiya’s Serbian professional Filip Ivanovic was shown red for tugging on the shirt of Sitra’s Badar Bashir Abdallah, who was on his way towards a clear goal-scoring opportunity with an empty net.
Goulart stepped forward to take the shot and sent it to the bottom-right corner of goal, despite Khaldiya’s Mohamed Abdelrahim Elgharably guessing the right way.
Sitra then took a stunning 2-0 lead just three minutes later when Yaya Al Hadj Ousman fired in from close range. He received a brilliant pass from Yemeni teammate Abdulwasea Abdullah Almatari, who set him up perfectly just outside the six-yard box, and Ousman scored with his first touch.
Khaldiya fought back and reduced the deficit on the stroke of half-time when Jovan Marinkovic, another Serbian import, scored from inside the six-yard box. He guided in an attempt by Gleison Wilson Da Silva Moreira, making it 1-2 as both teams headed into the locker rooms for the interval.
It then didn’t take long after the re-start for Khaldiya to draw level. Just two minutes into the second half, Bahraini international Mahdi Humaidan sent in a high header off a cross by Iraqi teammate Dhurgham Ismail. Humaidan’s lobbed effort could not be reached by Sitra custodian Abbas Ahmed, forging the 2-2 tie.
That set the stage for Abduljabbar’s winner, which he headed in. Abduljabbar scored from the face of goal, taking advantage of some porous Sitra defence.
Ismail once again supplied the assist from the left wing, and Abduljabbar met his cross as he caught the Sitra backline asleep.
The His Majesty the King’s Cup is a single-elimination football tournament that was held this season featuring sides from both the Nasser bin Hamad Bahrain Premier League and the Bahrain Second Division.
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