Lebanon and Bahrain drew (1-1) in the opening match of the 2025 AFC Women’s Futsal Asian Cup (Group A) qualifiers, played on Saturday at the Nonthaburi City Stadium, Thailand.
Lebanon opened the scoring thanks to a goal from Mary Jo Wakim in the 13the minute, but Bahrain equalized in the 27the minute via Sheikha Alanoud al Khalifa.
Dominant in the first half, Lebanon created several dangerous chances against Bahraini goalkeeper Zahra. At the 9e minute, Mary Jo Wakim advanced with the ball before a Bahraini defender stepped in to intercept it. Zahra repelled Wakim’s attempt two minutes later, preventing the score from opening.
Wakim did not give up and continued to press. She ended up scoring Lebanon’s first goal in the 13the minute, after dribbling past two defenders and firing a powerful shot into the top corner.
At the start of the second half, the turning point of the match came when Mary Jo Wakim received a red card in the 23e minute, which significantly affected Lebanon’s performance. Bahrain took advantage of this numerical superiority to equalize thanks to a shot from Alanoud al Khalifa which surprised the Lebanese goalkeeper Tanous in the 27the minute.
Despite this hard blow, the Lebanese tried to regain the advantage in the final minutes, but the Bahraini goalkeeper shone, allowing her team to leave with a precious point.
The second round of Group A takes place on Monday, with Palestine taking on Thailand and Iraq meeting Bahrain.
Lebanon will continue its qualifying campaign on Wednesday January 15 at 11:30 a.m. (Beirut time) against Palestine. The Lebanese team will then play against Iraq on Friday January 17 at the same time, before concluding their matches against Thailand on Sunday January 19 at 2:30 p.m. (Beirut time, 7:30 p.m. local time).
The top two teams from each group, plus the best third place finisher from the combined groups, will advance to the final tournament, where they will join Iran (defending champions), Japan (runner-up) and China (hosts). .
