Yemen beat Bahrain 5-2 in Jeddah for their second win in Gulf Cup history
Yemen Herald News 
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Yemen beat Bahrain 5-2 in their final Gulf Cup group match on Wednesday, taking their first points of the tournament and their second win in the competition.
The match was played at Prince Abdullah al-Faisal Sports City in Jeddah, in the third and final round of Group B. Both sides had been eliminated before kick-off.
Bahrain led inside seven minutes. Ali al-Dosari put them in front.
Yemen drew level in the 18th minute. Nasser al-Ghawashi finished a solo run and marked the goal with Cristiano Ronaldo’s celebration.
Abdulwasea al-Matari, the Yemen captain, put his side ahead in the 31st minute.
Rami al-Wasmani made it 3-1 in the 40th minute. Adel Abbas Qasim added a fourth in the 44th. Yemen led 4-1 at the interval.
Ali Madan pulled a goal back for Bahrain in the 67th minute.
Al-Wasmani scored his second, and Yemen’s fifth, five minutes into stoppage time. The goal came on a counter-attack.
The result lifted Yemen to third in Group B on three points. Bahrain finished bottom without a point.
Al-Wasmani finished the group stage as Yemen’s leading scorer with two goals, both against Bahrain. That placed him joint second on the tournament chart, alongside Nicolas Jimenez of the United Arab Emirates, Yousef Nasser of Kuwait and Firas al-Braikan of Saudi Arabia.
Nasser al-Rawahi of Oman led the chart with three. Al-Ghawashi, al-Matari and Qasim each scored once for Yemen.
Bahrain ended their title defence with three defeats.
The United Arab Emirates and Qatar advanced to the semi-finals, each on seven points. The UAE took first place in the group after drawing their final match.
The UAE play Oman in the semi-finals on Saturday. Qatar meet Saudi Arabia in the other tie. Saudi Arabia won Group A.
Yemen had lost their opening two games. The UAE beat them 4-0 on 24 September, and Qatar won 1-0 on 27 September. Bahrain lost 2-0 to Qatar in their opening match.
Bahrain came into the tournament as holders. They won the 26th edition in Kuwait, beating Oman 2-1 in the final on 4 January 2025.
Yemen’s only previous win at the Gulf Cup also came against Bahrain. They won 2-1 on 28 December 2024, at that same tournament.
Yemen have entered 12 editions of the Gulf Cup. Their best finish came in 2014, when they drew twice and lost once.
Noureddine Ould Ali has coached the side since 2024. The Algerian previously managed Palestine.
Ould Ali told Reuters before the tournament that his record had earned him a label.
“If you know my background over the past 10 or 16 years and where I have coached, people call me an ‘emergency coach’ because of the difficult circumstances I have worked in,” he said.
He said he had told his players not to treat the Gulf Cup as preparation for the Asian Cup.
“That is the trap. I told the players not to think that way,” he said. “The Gulf Cup is one objective and the Asian Cup is another.”
“I am preparing for the Gulf Cup at 400%, and only then will we think about Asia,” he said.
Asked how players shut out events at home, Ould Ali said the question could not be settled player by player.
“How can that be measured in relation to Yemen? Can it be measured for every player or every family? I don’t think so,” he said. “At the end of the day, we are human beings, and when something painful happens anywhere, we are affected by it.”
“I have some knowledge of geopolitics and experience from my time with Palestine,” Ould Ali said.
He said the focus was on football and on bringing joy to Yemenis.
Yemen play no internationals on home soil. The team’s designated home ground is Althawra Sports City Stadium, and they are required to stage home fixtures at neutral venues because of the civil war. They currently use grounds in Saudi Arabia.
Ould Ali said the tournament in Saudi Arabia gave the squad a rare chance to play in front of large numbers of Yemeni supporters. He had apologised to supporters after the opening defeat to the UAE. After the loss to Qatar he declined to blame the refereeing.
FIFA ranked Yemen 145th in its list published on 20 July 2026. The team’s highest placing was 90th, in August and September 1993. Its lowest was 186th, in February 2014.
The Yemen Football Association administers the team. It is affiliated to the Asian Football Confederation and to the West Asian Football Federation.
North and South Yemen reunited in 1990 and merged their national sides. Their captains alternated between matches in the years that followed.
Yemen have reached the AFC Asian Cup twice. They appeared in 2019 as a unified nation and finished last in Group D, without a goal or a point.
They have qualified for the 2027 edition. The draw placed them in Group B with Lebanon, Bhutan and Brunei.
The 27th Gulf Cup began on 23 September and runs to 6 October. Eight teams entered.
Matches are split between Prince Abdullah al-Faisal Sports City, which holds about 27,000, and King Abdullah Sports City, which holds about 62,000.
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