Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Doha: Substitute Hawar Mulla Mohammad scored a hat-trick as former AFC Cup finalists Arbil maintained a perfect record in Group D with a resounding 6-0 win over Kyrgyzstan’s Alay on Wednesday.
Spaniard Jorge Gotor, Halkor Mulla Mohammad and Farhan Shakor were also on target at Grand Hamad Stadium as 2012 runners-up Arbil added to last month’s 3-1 win over Jordan’s Shabab Al Ordon to remain two points clear at the top of Group D.
Alay, meanwhile, suffered a first defeat of the campaign having shared a goalless draw with Bahrain’s Riffa two weeks ago.
“We achieved a big and important victory as we controlled the match well and we successfully scored from the chances that we created. We played a good attacking match and we knew how to finish the match with a good result,” said Arbil coach Ayob Odisho.
“The win will strengthen our position on top of the group as we are looking forward to finishing on top of the group to advance to the knockout stage. The win is important, but the most important thing is the way our players dealt with the chances they had and scored six goals.”
Having dominated from the first whistle, Arbil had to wait until 11 minutes before half-time to finally break the deadlock as Hawar Mulla Mohammad – who had replaced the injured Amjed Radhi midway through the first half – collected a pass from Luay Salah inside the penalty area before beating Alay goalkeeper Valerii Kashuba.
But Arbil did not have to wait long for a second as Gotor volleyed home from Burhan Sahyouni’s corner in first half stoppage time.
Arbil continued their dominance into the second half and eight minutes after the restart Salah and Hawar Mulla Mohammad again combined with a neat exchange of passes on the edge of the penalty area before the latter found the bottom corner via the upright.
And a fourth arrived three minutes before the hour mark as Sahyouni beat goalkeeper Kashuba to a ball on the left before crossing for Halkor Mulla Mohammad to find the empty net.
Mohammad eventually capped his superb individual display by completing his hat-trick with five minutes remaining as his powerful strike from inside the area beat Kashuba.
And with just over a minute remaining, Hawar Mulla Mohammad tuned provider as his cross was turned home by substitute Shakour from close range.
“The result today was too big and it came because of some mistakes in the defence and midfield. We didn’t have a good performance and we were not at our best and this affected us and thus we suffered a big defeat,” said Alay coach Vladimir Kulagin.
“Our current situation is not good after this big defeat. We made many mistakes which gave Arbil a chance to score six goals after I was hoping that we could have better performances. We will try our best to fix our mistakes in the future and make a good comeback.”