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Late Bahrain treble stuns Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR - Bahrain stunned Malaysia with three goals in the last 10 minutes as they stormed back to win 3-2 in a remarkable Olympic qualifier on Sunday.

The visitors had gone behind to a long-distance scorcher from Malaysian livewire Muhammad Nazmi and they looked dead-and-buried when Mohamed Al Hayam put the ball in his own net midway through the second half.

But a moment of magic from Saad Al Amer reduced the deficit on 80 minutes when his sublime bicycle-kick dropped over goalkeeper Khairul Fahmi and into the Malaysian net.

Four minutes later Bahrain were back on level terms courtesy of a superb free-kick from Isa Al Ahmed, who was then on hand to fire the winner on 86 minutes following Al Amer’s cutback.

The dramatic turn-around earned Bahrain their first points of qualifying as they sit third in Group C, three points behind second-placed Syria.

But the home defeat puts a big dent in the hopes of Malaysia, who have paid for their exertions in winning the Southeast Asian Games title last week with two defeats since, including Wednesday’s 2-0 loss to Syria.