Football Previews
Yemen meet Bahrain at the King Fahd International Stadium this Thursday evening in their opening game of Group A in the Gulf Cup. Yemen come into this tie after a long run of poor form – they lost 2:0 to Oman last time out – prior to that they drew 1:1 with Kuwait and Iraq and before that, they drew 0:0 with both Indonesia and Chad. Bahrain on the other hand come into this tie in fine form having lost just 1 of their last 7. They defeated Singapore 2:0 last time out after 3 draws against Korea DPR, Iraq and Uzbekistan. Bahrain have lost just 1 of their last 15 games in all competitions and that defeat came at the hands of Jordan back in January 2014. These two sides have met 5 times in recent years and Bahrain have been dominant. Bahrain have won the last 3 meetings 2:0, 2:0 and 1:0 while Yemen have managed to win 1 out 5 (3:0). Bookmakers make Bahrain strong favourites to come out on top in this tie (1/3). Yemen are massive outsiders at odds of (13/2) while the draw is currently (10/3). Prediction: Yemen 0:3 Bahrain It’s very difficult to make a case for a Yemen – a team who have won just 1 game in 32 and scored 8 goals in 17 games. Occasionally a team may have faced better opposition however Yemen have faced some very lowly ranked teams and still have failed to win. Bahrain come into this tie in fine form – they haven’t faced the best opposition in World Football however they have beaten teams with much better players than Yemen i.e. Qatar, Lebanon, Kuwait. Ultimately Bahrain should come out on top in this tie – they have the ability to score goals and have been in reasonable form of late. Yemen have a very slim chance although it could be said that they have to win sometime – 1 win in 32 is a very poor strike rate by any standard and if they are to improve on that against Bahrain, they need to improve their horrendous goals to game ratio on Thursday evening.
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