Sharjah: Bahrain were moments away from exiting the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 before an added-time penalty scored by Jamal Rashed gave them a 1-0 win over India to send them through to the knockout stage at the Sharjah Stadium on Monday.
Rashed cooly tucked home the spot-kick past goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu to send the Bahrain bench into a frenzy of celebrations.
Rashed, who plays for Bahraini Premier League side Al-Muharraq, said he’s grateful for the win and expressed gratitude to the fans who stayed to watch the team play till the very end.
“I would like to thank the Bahraini fans present at the stadium, and I’m thankful that we got a result, so they did not leave the stadium disappointed,” said the 30-year-old midfielder.
“The match was made very difficult because their goalkeeper played really well. We were on the attack since the first minute, but we were unlucky in front of goal.”
Match Highlights - January 14
Bahrain were kept at bay for the most part of the match but kept pressing and were rewarded almost at the very end.
“Things got more difficult as time wore on as India retreated and started playing on the counter, but our defenders did well to limit the danger. Then we got the penalty in the last minute and I managed to convert it.
“We were already expecting this to be a difficult group and we did well to successfully navigate it. Our objective was to qualify to the Round of 16 which we have now achieved.”
Source: the-afc.com