Ismail Abdullatif’s last-minute equalizer against Saudi Arabia on Wednesday earned Bahrain an intercontinental playoff against New Zealand and another shot at qualifying for next year’s World Cup.
Abdullatif scored in the third and last minute of injury time to force a 2-2 draw, enough for Bahrain to advance on the away-goals rule to a two-legged playoff against Oceania champions New Zealand on Oct. 10 and Nov. 14.
Bahrain, who have never qualified for the World Cup — missing out at the intercontinental playoff stage last time following a 2-1 aggregate loss to Trinidad and Tobago — ended Saudi Arabia’s run of four straight World Cup appearances.
The Saudis, who missed out on automatic qualifying after a scoreless home draw against North Korea in July, had been literally seconds away from advancing.
Nasser al-Shamrani gave the hosts the lead after 13 minutes at Riyadh’s King Fahd Stadium but Jaycee John equalized three minutes before half-time.
Hamad al-Montashiri broke the 1-1 deadlock in the first minute of injury time and, with Saudi fans celebrating an apparent progression, Abdullatif headed in Salman Isa’s corner kick to earn the draw. The first match of the final Asian qualifier ended in a scoreless draw in Manama.
Bahrain will now host New Zealand next month before traveling to Wellington for the return match in November.
Bahrain attacked from the start on Wednesday and almost took the lead after three minutes when defender Faouzi Aaish had a free kick tipped over the bar by goalkeeper Waleed Abdulla.
The home side had a chance two minutes later through 2007 Asian player of the year Yasser al-Qahtani, who collected a good cross from this year’s Saudi league top scorer al-Shamrani, but had his shot stopped by Bahrain goalkeeper Sayed Mohammed Jaffer.
The Saudis capitalized on their next opportunistic chance when al-Qahtani started the initiative with a neat pass to Mohammed Noor.
Noor set up the unmarked al-Shamrani, who scored despite the attentions of two Bahraini defenders.
The Saudis had further chances before Bahrain’s Belgium-based striker John, who only played in the last 10 minutes of the Manama match on the weekend, scored from a right-wing cross by Abdulla Omar.
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