Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
West Bank: Sameeh Abuhammad scored nine minutes from time to give Wad Al Ness their first win in the 2015 AFC Cup on Tuesday evening as his strike condemned Al Shorta to a 1-0 defeat that maintains the Palestinian club’s hopes of progress from Group B.
Abuhammad netted in the 81st minute to move Wad Al Ness level on five points with the Iraqis and kept their hopes of securing a place in the knockout rounds of the competition alive.
“Our players tonight fought very hard and they showed a great fighting performance,” said Wad Al Ness coach Abdulfattah Arar.
“I’m happy we won as it will get us closer to qualifying for the knockout stage and hopefully we can continue our good results in the next matches.
“The win will boost the confidence of our players which will definitely help us in the last two matches as we will be fighting to get one of the tickets from the group along with Al Jazeera and Al Shorta.”
Abuhammad’s goal came by virtue of a mistake by Al Shorta goalkeeper Mohammed Hameen who mishandled the Wad Al Ness captain’s free kick before the ball dropped over the goal line.
Al Shorta, who led Group B going into the game, remain on five points despite suffering their first loss of the campaign in a match they dominated and Mohammed Youssef’s team can still advance to the Round of 16 with wins in their remaining fixtures against Al Jazeera and Al Hidd.
Wad Al Ness goalkeeper Tawfiq Abuhammad was called upon to deny Alaa Abdulzehra and Mahdi Kareem in the first half and the game looked set to end in a draw before Sameeh Abuhammad’s free kick eventually found its way over the goal line.
Al Shorta narrowly missed out on an equaliser a minute into injury time at the end of the game when Abdulrezha’s effort came back off the woodwork allowing Wad Al Ness to hold on for a famous win.
“We made several individual mistakes which cost us the three points while we created several scoring chances but we failed to score and this affected us,” said Youssef. “We missed an important chance to get closer to the knockout stage.
“Our opponents played with an excellent fighting spirit and they always fought until the end, which is something unique with them as they previously managed two late draws against Al Jazeera and Al Hidd.”