Bahrain won the FIFA's most improved team award in 2004, and finished fourth in the 2004 Asian Cup, beating Uzbekistan in the quarter-finals but losing to Japan in the semi-finals 4–3.

Nonetheless, Bahrain was regarded as a weaker side in the Gulf Arab region, which constituted the stronger Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and Kuwait.

However, Bahrain went on undefeated at the group stage, including a famous 2–2 draw to China in Beijing, 1–1 to Qatar before trashed Indonesia 3–1 to reach the quarter-finals for the first time.

Bahrain put up another astonishing performance against defending champions Japan, only lost 3–4 after extra time, before losing 2–4 to Iran in the third place game.

This allowed Bahrain to enter another two-legged playoff with the fourth-placed CONCACAF nation, (Trinidad and Tobago), for a spot in the World Cup.

They went on to play New Zealand in the final playoff in which a victory would qualify them for the World Cup, but after a goalless draw in Manama on 10 October 2009, Bahrain lost the return leg 1–0 in Wellington on 14 November 2009, missing out on qualification at the last hurdle for the second time running.

Bahrain qualified for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup held in neighbouring Qatar, and was drawn in a tough group composing Australia, South Korea and India.

Bahrain lost two opening games against Iran and the UAE 0–2 and 1–2, the latter defeat was subject to the earliest goal in Asian Cup history by Ali Mabkhout.

In the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers second round, Bahrain finished fourth in a group with Uzbekistan, North Korea, Philippines and Yemen.

The poor performance of the Bahraini side caused huge public uproar over the team's ongoing decline, rocked the chair of manager Sergio Batista.

The team suffered a home draw to minnows Singapore, before getting humiliated by Chinese Taipei away 1–2 that was considered as a shock, since Taiwan is not a football nation.

The Bahrainis managed a promising early performance when they faced the hosts, scored a goal lead in 78', but was eventually held 1–1 following an unclear penalty decision by the Jordanian referee Adham Makhadmeh.

Afterwards, Bahrain managed to win two competitions for the first time, after defeating both Iraq and Saudi Arabia, 1–0 under the leadership of Hélio Sousa against all odds, in the WAFF Championship and Gulf Cup respectively.

This defeat proved to be disastrous for Bahrain, as their 4–0 victory over Hong Kong[8] was too little, too late, due to Iran prevailing 1–0 over Iraq in the final game.