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Bahrain’s Olympic football hopefuls are determined to put the 0-1 defeat against Palestine behind them when they tackle the second leg tomorrow in the West Bank. writes Mai Al Khatib.
While Bahrain’s Under-23 players dominated throughout and created opportunities during Sunday evening’s first leg, it was the Palestinians who rose victorious with a beautiful header from midfielder Khalid Salem in the 70th minute at the National Stadium.
Bahrain fought back for an equaliser but the hapless strikers were no match for Palestine’s goalkeeper Tawfiq Abuhammad who made some spectacular saves.
Now Bahrain must secure victory in the deciding leg of the second round Asian qualifier at the Faisal Al Hussaini International Stadium in Al Ram for any chance of qualifying for the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Bahrain’s coach Salman Sharida is determined to make amends. He has been training the Bahraini squad on artificial grass specifically to cater to the challenges his team will face in Palestine.
He said: “Now we know how the Palestinian side play. I have great faith in my team. There is only one goal difference which is not much. It’s a whole other game in Palestine and I believe we can make up for the first leg loss.”
Palestine’s Tunisian coach, Mokhtar Tlili, said: “Actually we will be facing even more pressure now because we will be playing in front of 30,000 Palestinian fans while in Bahrain it was around 1,000.”
The winners will move to the group stage.
