Saudi Arabia keep the door open! | Bahrain - Saudi Arabia | Highlights #AsianQualifiers - Road To 26

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia meet in Riffa on Matchday 9 in Group C. The hosts find themselves now chasing a playoff spot after disappointing in recent encounters, while the visitors need three points to secure a playoff place after Australia's win earlier today. After defeats to Indonesia and Japan back in March, Bahrain have now left themselves with work to do, but Dragan Talaic will be confident his side can take advantage of playing in front of a home crowd. Monsieur Renard took charge of the Green Falcons for a second time back in October and can rely on all the big names tonight, with Al-Dasari, Al-Burikhan, Yahya and Al-Jahani all available and in the starting line-up. Saudi Arabia all in white. Al-Tanbakti with a lovely ball over the top. And it's close control here! But then... A save made possible for Ibrahim Lukfala. Ali Majrashi doing well initially. Second touch just letting him down. Still for a quarter of an hour gone for Saudi Arabia. Definitely the team on top here so far in this first half. Al-Dasari with a lovely cross to the back post. Taken first time by Musab Al-Juweir. Sixth international goal for the 21-year-old. The cross from Al-Dasari, absolutely sublime. Picked his spot, as did Al-Juweir moments later. Saudi Arabia 1-0 up here. We haven't seen too much from Bahrain so far. Shot from distance from Kamil Al-Aswad. Unable to keep it down. Plenty of venom behind it though. More than five minutes before the break. Lovely through ball to Al-Dasari. Went for the cheeky dink over the keeper. Ayman Yahya, lovely weight on the ball to pick him out. Al-Dasari unable to find the back of the net. A double Saudi Arabia's lead. So it stays at 1-0 at the break as we head into the second 45. Bahrain with a much better start here in the second period of play. Missed opportunity there for Al-Humaydan. With the header, does find its way to Al-Sharouki. Nawaf Al-Aqidi off his line early. Unable to deal with the danger. 66th minute. Saudi Arabia coming forward down this left side. Into the back post. Great ball across the face of goal from Nasser Al-Dasari. Al-Aboud unable to put the finishing touches on it. Definitely onside. Moments later, Bahrain coming back the other way. Far more impressive in this second half. Missed opportunity once and twice. Abdul-Jabbar tries the cheeky back heel as the ball comes across and in his direction. And Al-Aswad can't find the back of the net either. Time running out for Bahrain. Emmanuel with the long range effort. Now perhaps the opportunity to level things up. And again, two golden opportunities back to back. And Bahrain can't take advantage of either of them. Abdul-Jabbar denied by Al-Aqidi. This was Emmanuel just moments before. And Al-Aswad skies it over the crossbar. Green Falcons winning the ball back inside their own half. Ball into Majrashi. First time ball forward into the path of Abdul-Rahman Al-Aboud. Finds the bottom corner. And that will wrap things up here. Bahrain with a decent effort in the second half. But that surely puts it out of reach now. And so Saudi Arabia secure their place in the playoffs with a top four finish now guaranteed. And will need to win big, very big against Australia on the final match day if they want automatic qualification. We'll be right back.