AFC Cup: Al Wahda 1-4 Al Hidd

Manama: AFC Cup debutants Al Hidd of Bahrain has taken  a big step towards the knockout rounds with a resounding 4-1 win over Syrian side Al Wahda.

Needing a win to leapfrog Iraqi side Al Shorta into second spot in Group C, Al Hidd made an excellent start at the National Stadium, Manama and they were 3-0 up at the interval through goals by captain Isa Musabbeh, Mohammad Al Daoud and Sayed Mohamed Adnan.

Paulo Roberto added a fourth in the second half before Maher Al Said grabbed a late consolation for Al Wahda, who saw their slender hopes of progression ended.

Al Hidd now have eight points, two ahead of Al Shorta, and a home win against already qualified Al Qadsia of Kuwait in their final group game will see them go through to the last 16.

“This is an important victory for us as we controlled the match and after finishing the first half with a good lead we continued our good performance in the second period,” said Al Hidd coach Khalifa Al Zayani..

“The fitness of the players dropped in the last 15 minutes which gave Al Wahda the chance to create some scoring chances. I didn’t expect that Al Wahda would be good in the last few minutes but they surprised us although we managed to hold on to the lead.”

It took just six minutes for Musabbeh to break the deadlock in Manama. A corner from the left was only half-cleared by the Syrian defence and Musabbeh collected the ball and fired a powerful shot from just inside the area past goalkeeper Mahmoud Karkar.

A second goal would arrive for the Syrian side two minutes before half-time as Al Daoud made a good run to beat the Al Wahda offside trap before beating Karkar with a a neat chip.

And in stoppage time at the end of the half, Adnan scored his team’s third with a powerful free-kick from the that gave Karkar little chance.

Al Hidd maintained the pressure in their second half and substitute Paulo Roberto netted a fourth as he received a pass from Al Daoud and ran on to beat Karkar with a low shot despite the attention of defender Omro Al Midani.

Al Wahda were well beaten but they did manage a consolation goal in the 78th minute. Al Said received a neat pass from Osama Omari and he made no mistake as he beat goalkeeper Abbas Ahmed from an acute angle on the left.

“Al Hidd deserved to win today as they took advantage of our defensive mistakes and scored four goals,” said Al Wahda coach Raafat Mohammad.

“We tried our best to make a comeback in the second half but we conceded a fourth goal which made things harder for us.”

“We lost today because our players lacked experience and we played one of our worst matches this year. Some players were not at their best and they were probably a bit overconfident after the 1-1 draw with Qadsia SC in our previous match.”

M.Daoud