Sudanese champions Al-Hilal Omdurman confirmed their advancement to the final qualifying stage of the 2023 Arab Club Champions Cup on Monday following a 2-1 second leg defeat to Bahrain’s Manama Club at the Khalifa Sports City in northern Bahrain. Hilal’s 3-0 victory in the first leg played in Sudan gave them a comfortable lead to defend and Ghanaian midfielder David Abagna opened the scoring on Monday to extend the advantage to four goals before Manama responded with two goals to lose 4-2 on aggregate. Al-Hilal await the winner of the tie between Tunisia’s CS Sfaxien and Qatar SC which will be completed on Tuesday.
The odds were long of Manama Club staging a second leg comeback and Abagna’s goal put Al-Hilal beyond reach in the 23rd minute. A free kick from Faris Abdalla was floated into the Manama penalty area and a poor headed clearance went right to Abagna eight yards from goal. The former Real Tamale United star was left with an open shot and fired his finish past goalkeeper Ammar Mohamed.
To their credit the Bahraini champions had a swift response within ten minutes of Abagna’s goal. Manama Club captain Isa Moosa drew a foul in the penalty area soon after and converted the resulting penalty kick. Five minutes later Manama took the lead through Ibrahim Al-Khatal who shot low past Hilal keeper Issa Fofana in the 37th minute after receiving a cross. However the hosts could not take advantage of the momentum gained and Hilal were able to hold out and advance.
Video of the goals from the match is below.
