Sport | Football
Oman enter Gulf Cup final
A brilliant header by Badr Al Maymani helped favourites Oman enter the final of the 18th Gulf Cup football championship in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
- By M. Satya Narayan, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:36 May 3, 2009
- Image Credit: Ahmed Kutty/Gulf News
- Esmail Agami (left) of Oman and Salman Eisa Goulum of Bahrain vie for the ball during the Gulf Cup semifinals. Oman won the match 1-0 to book a place in the final.
Abu Dhabi: A brilliant header by Badr Al Maymani helped favourites Oman enter the final of the 18th Gulf Cup football championship here yesterday.
The Milan Macala-coached Omani team put an end to the gutsy challenge of Bahrain 1-0 in a repeat match of the last Gulf Cup.
And once again it was their star forwards Badr Al Maymani and Imad Al Hosani who plotted Bahrain's downfall as they did in Qatar two years ago.
Imad scored two and Al Maymani one when Oman beat Bahrain 3-2 in the semifinals two years back.
Macala's men were not very impressive in the entry to the final, but they did enough to deserve that berth and the killer punch came in the 55th minute.
Imad Al Hosani collected the ball on the right, pulled the ball back to beat a rival defender and then crossed into the box.
Al Maymani was left unmarked between two defenders and the striker's glancing header to the far corner beat Abdul Rahman.
"It is fantastic. Our team played for a win and we deserved it," said the burly Czech after the win. "Now we will wait to find out who our opponents are," said Macala, after the first seminal.
The match itself was a mediocre affair with both sides committing a lot of errors, but Oman's midfield duo of Fawzi Bashir and Ahmad Mubarak did give them the edge in attack.
Oman started as the better team in offence and Al Hosani's shot was well saved by Rahman in the 12th minute. The Bahrainis failed to stay calm during the first half hour and both Mohammad Salmein and Ala'a Huibail received yellow cards, more out of frustration. And they also failed to take advantage of a defensive error by Oman.
Defender Abdullah Esmail kicked the air instead of the ball and it rolled across the goalmouth, but the Bahraini striker failed to react in time.
The Omani defenders also used the offside trap frequently with Talal Yousuf and Ala'a Hubail failing to read the last line of defence.
Then in the 38th minute Fawzi Bashir's firm drive was well saved by the Bahraini keeper, but a minute later they had to replace their star defender Abdullah Al Marzouqi with Mohammad Adnan. With the game confined more to the midfield, the teams crossed over and after the break Bahrain looked a bit sharper to start with.
Talal Yousuf shot wide from close range, but off a counter-attack Oman took the lead in the 55th minute through Al Maymani.
Bahrain's coach Senad Kreiss made two more changes and Jaisi John Akwani tested Ali Al Habshi with a firm left footer soon after he came in.
Ali Al Habshi, who plays for Bolton, saved Oman in the 75th minute when he did very well to keep out a beautiful free-kick taken by Mohammad Adnan, the substitute being one of the most impressive of the Bahraini lot.
Bahrain, who snatched the match winner in injury time against Qatar, however found no such luck yesterday when Ali Al Habshi saved a good attempt by Adnan during the dying minutes of the game.
Came the final whistle and Macala was all smiles while Kreiss lit a cigarette and walked away crestfallen.
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