Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Melbourne: Looking through the AFC Asian Cup history books, Bahrain striker Ismail Abdullatif sits alongside Iranian duo Behtash Fariba and Ali Daei as holders of a unique record in the continental competition.
Playing against India in the 2011 tournament in Qatar, as the striker appeared in his second AFC Asian Cup having also featured for Bahrain four years earlier, Abdullatif impressively rattled in a hat-trick inside the opening 35 minutes of the Group C contest.
But it was his fourth with 13 minutes remaining that saw the striker join Fariba and Daei as one of only three players to score four goals in the history of the AFC Asian Cup.
That though, represented Bahrain’s only points of the campaign as Salman Shareedah’s side lost by single goal margins to both Korea Republic and Australia either side of the win over India to suffer a second group stage exit, to continue their bid to emulate the side which reached the semi-finals in 2004.
“Against India it was a fantastic game. I scored four goals and I remember every goal and every second of this game,” said the 28-year-old Abdullatif, who also scored the winner in Bahrain’s 2-1 victory over Korea Republic in the group stage of the 2007 campaign.
“But I also have bad history in this tournament as we cannot qualify, so if we qualify, I have more chances to score more goals.”
For the record, Fariba netted his four goals in a 7-0 win over Bangladesh in the group stage of the 1980 tournament in Kuwait, while Daei was on target during Iran’s 6-2 quarter-final success over Korea Republic in 1996.
Bahrain’s fairytale run to the semi-finals in 2004 represents their best-ever AFC Asian Cup campaign having also exited in the group stage in 1998 as Japan needed an extra-time goal from Keiji Tamada to seal a 4-3 win over Srecko Jurici’s side, who eventually lost the third place play-off to Iran thanks to two late goals from Daei.
“In 2004 they played well in the competition and they made it to the semi-final. They were near to going to the final but they were unlucky. I remember this tournament exactly,” added Abdullatif.
“In 2007 we had a good chance as we won against South Korea and we needed to only draw with Saudi Arabia to qualify, but we conceded four.
“And in Qatar we played the final game in the group with a strong team like Australia. We also needed to win, but we lost 1-0. Hopefully, in this competition we can qualify for the next round.
“I am lucky to play in this competition for the third time here in Australia. I played in Indonesia, and then Qatar, and now Australia. I hope to continue to score like I did in the last two competitions.”
This time around in Australia in 2015, Bahrain have again been handed a tough test having been drawn in Group C alongside three-time winners Iran, reigning Gulf Cup champions Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
And Bahrain will begin their campaign against Asia’s number one ranked side Iran, who featured at last year’s FIFA World Cup in Brazil, at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium on Sunday.
“We have trained here for three days in Melbourne and it is good. Our players are playing well and we have had good preparation for this game,” said Abdullatif, who currently play in Bahrain with Al Muharraq having previously played in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
“We will play against a strong team who played in the World Cup and we hope to have a good result.
“We have young players now and we need to be a good team in the future, so we will work to play well here in Australia.”
The meeting with Iran will represent a second competitive game in charge for new Bahrain coach Marjan Eid after the former assistant replaced Adnan Hamad midway through November’s Gulf Cup.
Eid did oversee an encouraging goalless draw with eventual champions Qatar in the final round of group stage fixtures before also seeing his side beat both Saudi Arabia and Jordan in recent friendlies since arriving in Australia.
“The coach has been with us for one month, but he was assistant coach for maybe 10 years so he has good experience in this tournament,” added Abdullatif, who scored twice during the 4-1 win over Saudi Arabia having been part of the side beaten 3-0 by the same opponents at the Gulf Cup in Hamad’s last game in charge.
“I hope he can help us and we will also help him.”