World Cup setback for Bahrain U20 team

Manama, Oct. 23 (BNA): Bahrain today saw their dreams of reaching the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Football Cup finals go up in smoke. In the AFC U-19 Championship, being held in Bahrain, the nationals’ impressive run came to an end as they suffered a heartbreaking 0-1 defeat to Vietnam in their quarter-final match. The defeat ended Bahrain’s hopes in the championship, whee the top four teams qualify for the biennial international youth football championship next year in South Korea. Staged at the National Stadium, the Bahrain vs Vietnam battle saw both teams putting in their best performance, but eventually it was the visitors who capitalized on a loose ball inside the penalty area where Tran Thanh lobbed the ball over Bahrain goalkeeper Yousif Habib, much to the disappointment of more than 10,0000 home supporters. In another quarter-final clash played earlier yesterday, Saudi Arabia became the first country to qualify for the 2017 World Cup after a clinical 6-5 penalty shoot-out victory over Iraq in a neck-and-neck clash. Regular time ended 2-2, all of which were scored in the second-half, as the Saudis fired twice in space of four minutes through Rakan Al Anaze (65th minute) and Abdulrahman Elyasu (69th). Iraq made a solid comeback and managed to pull a goal back thanks to Sajjad Hussain (75th), then Mazen Fayyad (80th) fired the equalizer to put the scores back level. The game was determined from the penalty spot, where Saudi goalkeeper Amin Al Bukhari played a major part in the victory, making two crucial saves to guide his team the semi-finals and to the World Cup finals. Meanwhile, the remaining two quarter-final matches are scheduled for today (Monday) when Japan take on Tajikistan at 4.15pm at Khalifa Stadium, then Iran faces Uzbekistan at 7.15pm at the National Stadium. Japan coach Atsushi Uchiyama said he’s glad that his team made it through to the knockout stage after such a tough group where his side played along with defending champions Qatar, Iran and Yemen. “We haven’t gone past the quarter-finals in our last four competitions so the next game is definitely an important one. We will try our best to clear this hurdle,” said Uchiyama. On the other hand, Tajikistan coach Vitalii Levchenko said: All the teams that have qualified for the knockout stage are very strong teams. We are trying and we are learning but we know this is only one step further in our dream of qualifying for the U-20 World Cup”. In today’s second match, Iran coach Amir Peiravani hopes his side will be ready for their tough match against Uzbekistan, who emerged as one of the best teams in the competition. “When we started the tournament we were ready for six matches, maybe two days’ rest or three days’ rest so it’s not important. We have had some good training and we will be 100 percent ready for the competition against Uzbekistan,” said Peiravani. Uzbekistan coach Jasur Abduraimov said: “We will play against one of the strongest and best teams in this competition. We know Iran are physically strong and they have shown beautiful football with good tactics, so we expect a difficult and interesting game”.