Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Manama: Ifedayo Omosuyi and Ali Haram scored as Bahrain’s Al Hidd qualified for a third consecutive appearance in the group stage of the AFC Cup after recording a 2-0 win over Pakistan’s K-Electric on Tuesday.
Nigerian Omosuyi opened the scoring after 55 minutes for 2014 AFC Cup quarter-finalists Al Hidd against K-Electric, who won last year’s playoff qualifier in Bhutan.
And with Haram adding a second in stoppage time at the end of the second half, Al Hidd secured their place in Group A of this year’s AFC Cup.
“We were hoping to seal the result in the first half in order to avoid any pressure in the second half. We tried to create some scoring chances, but we failed to do so as the players were under pressure,” said Al Hidd coach Salman Shareedah.
“The most important thing is that we won the match and qualified to the group stage of the competition.
“We have previously played in the group stage and hopefully we can have good results and reach the knockout stage.”
Al Hidd enjoyed the better of the first half although neither side were able to create a threat on target.
But that changed 10 minutes into the second half as an improving Al Hidd, who also appeared in the group stage of the AFC Cup in 2015, opened the scoring as Omosuyi headed home Mohamed Abdulla’s cross.
And three minutes into added time at the end of the second half, Al Hidd made sure of the win as Haram made his way into the penalty area before beating K-Electric goalkeeper Jahangir.
“We gave a good performance in the match and we benefited a lot from playing in this game as we were up against one of the strongest sides in Bahrain. Our players learned a lot of lessons for the future,” said K-Electric coach Muhammad Hassan.
“We were hoping that we could have a positive result in the match, but at the end of the day the better side won.”