Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Manama: Saad Al Amer struck twice in six second-half minutes as Bahraini side Riffa picked up their first win in Group D of the AFC Cup with a 2-0 victory over Jordanian league champions Shabab Al Ordon on Wednesday.
The visitors had the better of the first half at the National Stadium in Manama as they dominated possession and fashioned the majority of the chances while Riffa were prepared to sit back and play on the counter-attack.
But the Bahraini club improved after the interval and they took the lead 10 minutes into the second half.
Mladen Jovancic made his way down the right and sent a low cross into the box which was met by Al Amer who fired home from close range.
And just six minutes later, Al Amer made it 2-0 with a fine solo effort. He took the ball from Shabab Al Ordon midfielder Oday Zahran and beat a defender and goalkeeper Anas Tarif on his run into the box before tucking the ball into the unguarded net.
“I’m happy that we achieved an important victory tonight against a strong team,” said Riffa coach Florin Motroc, who saw his team move up to second in the group behind Iraqi side Arbil
“The weather conditions made it hard for the two teams but we managed to score two goals and got an important win which will give us a big boost before the match against Arbil.
“Our players lost many easy balls at the start of the match as they were under big pressure because they wanted to win the match. However, I talked to them at half-time and we had a better performance in the second period.”
Shabab Al Ordon remained in last place without any points from two games.
“Riffa deserved to win today as they were an organized side and they put in a good performance while we should have put in more effort. We had some scoring chances but we failed to take those chances in both periods,” said coach Raed Assaf.
“The weather conditions affected our players and they didn’t produce a good performance. We were looking to get our first victory after our previous defeat to Arbil but at the end of the day we could not score from the chances that we had while Riffa got two goals to win the match.”