May 16, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 28, 1428

LAHORE, May 15: Bahrian's national Olympic soccer team coach Kreso Senad included three new players ahead of their match against hosts Pakistan on Wednesday in the second leg of Group-A in the 29th Olympic Games qualifier (second round) at Punjab Stadium.

“Defenders Ahmed Abdulnabi of East Riffa and Al Hala's duo defender Majid Bilal and midfielder Rashid Al Sherooghi have been recalled for injured trio of Abdulrahman Mubarak, Fawzi Aaish and Abdulla Al Dekheel,” said the 52-year-old Herzegovina-based coach Kreso on Tuesday while talking to newsmen upon his team’s arrival here.

The team will also miss goalkeeper Sayed Shubbar Ibrahim, who is out with a knee injury, and Ahmed Abdulla, who is serving a one-match ban after being sent off during Bahrain's 4-0 defeat to hosts Qatar last month in Doha.

The team reached Lahore with Bahrain Football Association vice-president Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa heading the delegation which includes 18 players.

Bahrain are presently third in this group with six points from four matches, one behind second place Qatar and four behind leaders Kuwait. The Bahrainis got off with an emphatic 8-0 win over Pakistan which was followed by a 3-0 away defeat to Kuwait. They won their third match against Qatar 4-2 which was held on home soil before going down 4-0 in Doha.

This round will be played until June 6 with the qualifiers consisting of six groups of four nations each with the top two teams in each group moving on to make a line-up of 12 squads that will play the final qualifying stage between August 22 and November 21 later this year. The qualified 12 teams will then be divided into three groups where each team will again play home and away matches. The best team in each of the final three groups will then qualify for Beijing event.—APP