Bahrain through to playoff
ByReuters
Published 12/10/2005 at 11:33 GMT
Wolfgang Sidka's Bahrain held Uzbekistan to a 0-0 draw on Wednesday to advance to the final stage their qualifying campaign. After a 1-1 first-leg draw, Bahrain won through on away goals and set up a final playoff against the fourth-placed team from the C
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
Uzbekistan will feel hard done by having beaten Bahrain 1-0 at home in the original first leg on September 3.
That result was nullified by FIFA because of a refereeing error, in which Japanese official Toshimitsu Yoshida disallowed an Uzbekistan penalty because of encroachment. Instead of ordering the penalty to be retaken, Yoshida gave Bahrain an indirect free kick.
The Uzbeks, coached by Englishman Bobby Houghton, are probably regretting their decision to appeal to the sport's world ruling body.
They can have no complaints about the sequence of events over the next two matches, however, as Bahrain proved to be the better side.
At home, the Bahrainis refused to sit back on their away goal and launched repeated attacks.
First-leg goalscorer Talal Yusuf and Husain Ali proved constant threats and only poor finishing kept the game goalless.
Uzbekistan missed their top striker Maksim Shatskikh who was sidelined by flu.
Although they hit the post early in the first half, the Central Asian side never looked like troubling the well-marshalled Bahrain defence.
Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran have qualified from Asia for next year's World Cup finals in Germany.
Scan me
Related Topics
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement