Al Riffa vs Sitra Prediction: Title chase continues for the home team

Khalifa Sports City Stadium will be the venue for this round 16 Bahrain Premier League game between Al Riffa and Sitra. In their respective last league encounter, both sides could only pick one point. Will there be a winner in this one?

Al Riffa were held to a 1-1 draw by East Riffa earlier this week, and coming here, the hosts will look to take maximum points. In what was a road game, they had to come from behind to salvage that one point, with Vargas's 54th minute strike leveling Sami Al Husaini's 44th-minute goal for East Riffa. In the meantime, the prior game to that draw did see Al Riffa defeat Al-Hala 2-0 at home, their only victory in seven consecutive matches. In the league this season, Al Riffa have 32 points, four points behind first-placed Al Khalidiyah with the same number of matches played.

Sitra are coming off a 1-1 draw with Al-Hidd in the Bahrain Premier League. In that game, the full 90 minutes did end goalless, and in the first additional minute of the match, Tallysson Lucas Souza put Al-Hidd in the lead, but a 98th-minute strike by Alexander Amponsah was good enough to see Sitra avoid a defeat. In the meantime, Sitra have now failed to secure a win in any of their four recent matches, losing to Manama Club in one, while three others ended in draws. This season in the Bahrain Premier League, Sitra have accumulated 19 points from 17 matches, positioning them 8th in the standings, the same points as relegation-threatened Al-Hala.

The two teams have struggled to play at the top level in recent times, and in this game, they will have high expectations. The hosts, Al Riffa, will benefit from playing at home, but the fact that Sitra have lost just one of their last five matches will boost their confidence. This should be a low-scoring game, considering how their previous encounters have ended. However, given the fact that both teams have scored in recent games, I expect the hosts to win, with goals expected from both teams.