Road to the Finals: Bahrain’s see-saw route

Bahrain reached their third successive AFC Asian Cup finals by finishing runners-up in Group A to Japan, who have become regular adversaries of the Gulf nation in recent years with the two having played each other six times in continental and World Cup qualifying campaigns since 2008.


Milan Macala’s side began positively with a away 3-1 victory over Hong Kong with Abdulla Baba Fatadi, Ismaeel Abdullatif and Salman Isa find the net while Liu Quankun pulled one back for the hosts.
A 24th-minute strike from Salman Isa handed Bahrain the initiative over Japan with a slender 1-0 victory in Manama.
Bahrain’s strength in depth, however, was called into question when a side devoid of a number of key players were comprehensively beaten by Yemen in the third game.

Ali Mohammed Al Nono gave Yemen an early fifth-minute lead and doubled the advantage 20 minutes later. Mohammed Al Abidi added third four minutes from time in his side’s 3-0 victory.

Bahrain followed up that 3-0 loss in Sana’a with an emphatic 4-0 victory over their Gulf Cup rivals that ensured qualification to Qatar 2011 but they missed out topping the group after going down 2-0 to Japan.

Abdulla Fatadi, Ismaeel Abdullatif and Husain Salman gave Bahrain a 3-0 lead over Yemen while a 75th-minute own goal from Aref Al Dali made it 4-0.

Goals from Shinji Okazaki and Keisuke Honda avenged Japan’s defeat in the final game.

Bahrain were placed alongside Australia, India and Korea Republic in the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011™ and will begin their campaign against the East Asians on January 10, 2011.