Indonesia beat Bahrain to add to Arab woes

Indonesia edged Bahrain 2-1 in the AFC Asian Cup Group D opener on Tuesday as the Bahrainis become the fourth Arab team without a win in the competition so far.

كتب : Omar AbdelAziz

الثلاثاء، 10 يوليه 2007 - 16:08
Pamungkas(L) scored the winner
Indonesia edged Bahrain 2-1 in the AFC Asian Cup Group D opener on Tuesday as the Bahrainis become the fourth Arab team without a win in the competition so far.

Iraq, Oman, Qatar and UAE recently failed to collect the three points, with the latter suffering an embarrassing 2-0 defeat against Asian minnows Vietnam.

The winning goal came from skipper Bambang Pamungkas in the 63rd minute after Firman Utina's long-range effort rebounded off Bahrain keeper Abdul-Rahman Ahmed.

Mahmoud Sayed Jalal's 26th minute equalizer for Bahrain cancelled out Budi Sudarsono's opener for the co-hosts, but the equalizer proved useless as Pamungkas' striker settled the game.

Indonesia have the group summit on three points, while Bahrain are pointless at the bottom, Saudi Arabia will tackle Korea Republic on Wednesday.