Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Muscat: Turkmenistan’s Ahal FC survived a late scare to defeat Oman’s Fanja 3-2 in a shock upset at Seeb Sports Complex on Tuesday to advance to the group stage of the AFC Cup for the first time at the expense of the Sultan Qaboos Cup winners.
First-half strikes from Altymurad Annadurdiyev and Gurban Annayev put the visitors in control before the interval only for substitute Ibrahima Ndione to pull one back for Fanja midway through the second half.
Rahmet Shermetov restored Ahal’s two-goal advantage after 75 minutes and the visitors held on for the victory despite Bilal Danguir’s late effort for Fanja.
“The match was hard for the two sides, and although we didn’t show our true performance, we managed to get an important win. I’m happy for the young boys who showed great fighting spirit and took advantage of the mistakes of our opponents,” said Ahal coach Boris Grigoryants, who will see his side make their AFC Cup debut in Group C starting next week.
“I asked the players to concentrate and show their best in addition to taking advantage of the chances and this is what happened.
“We have now great responsibility and I hope that we can have good results in the group stage.”
Having beaten Kyrgyzstan’s FC Dordoi at home in last week’s preliminary round, Ahal took the lead after just six minutes when Annadurdiyev broke free on the counterattack before firing home from the right.
The visitors then doubled their lead on 41 minutes when Annadurdiyev’s shot was only parried by Fanja goalkeeper Ahmed Al Hattali before being swept home on the rebound by midfielder Annayev.
Fanja upped the tempo in the second half and scored through substitute Ndione in the 67th minute to keep their hopes alive.
But with 15 minutes remaining, Ahal midfielder Shermetov gave his side breathing space once more when he turned in Annadurdiyev’s cross from the right.
There was still time for the Fanja to pull one back, though, with substitute Danguir firing into the back of the net from outside the area in the 84th minute.
And although Ahal custodian Akmyrat Gurbanov will have been disappointed he did not do better, his side held out for a well-deserved and historic victory.
“I’m responsible for this defeat today. We had a good performance in the match, but the silly mistakes that the goalkeeper and defenders made today affected us and we have an early exit from the competition,” said Fanja coach Slobodan Pavkovic.
“We created many scoring chances, but out forwards failed to convert those chances into goals.
“This match showed me the reality of the team especially that I only took charge recently. I hope that I can build a strong team for the future.”