Fortune favours Bahrain footballers

The match is of special significance since the winners will secure a spot in the World Cup Finals in Germany next year.

The first leg of the play-off ended in a 1-1 draw on Saturday at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo.

In his three matches to date with Bahrain, Peruzovic, who lives in Belgium, has yet to taste victory and more importantly defeat, but came to narrowly doing so when going down to Uzbekistan 1-0.

But the result was cancelled by FIFA after the referee was found to have made an error.

That replay got Bahrain into the play-offs with the Warriors and a good first round result — a 1-1 draw away from home — has put the tiny nation on the brink of World Cup qualification.

However the pony-tailed Peruzovic is cautious about predicting victory for his team today although he feels the burden of expectation of a packed stadium of close to 30,000 fans who will all be admitted in free.

"The Port-of-Spain match was only the first half of a big battle, we still have a second half on Wednesday," Peruzovic told the Gulf Daily News, the second largest selling daily newspaper in Bahrain yesterday.

"I think we have a whole lot to be proud about. It was a very good game.

My players worked very hard for this half. But there’s a second half to be played in Bahrain.

We have to recover and prepare for this and we must keep concentrating," Perozovic said.

Riffa Stadium has particularly bad memories for the Bahraini team as the last time they played there, they were beaten 1-0 by Japan collapsing under the weight of the high expectations of their fans. And not only did they squander a chance to qualify directly for the main draw of the World Cup Finals, the result started a streak of two consecutive losses— against Iran (1-0) and North Korea (2-3).

But luck has been on the side of the plucky footballers who won just one match in the qualifying campaign but lost four times.

Against Uzbekistan, they drew the first leg in Tashkent and went down in the second leg 1-0 in Bahrain but FIFA ordered a replay after a protest was lodged against a decision by the Japanese referee.

They seized the opportunity and look for another lifeline against the Warriors.