Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Kuwait City: Defending champions Kuwait Sports Club booked their place in the quarter-finals of this year’s AFC Cup as they survived a penalty shootout against Iraqi side Duhok in a Round of 16 clash on Wednesday.
Kuwait SC had taken the lead in the match at the Kuwait SC Stadium when Chadi Hammami converted a first-half penalty but they were pegged back at 1-1 by Saleh Sadir’s strike early in the second half.
The teams remained deadlocked through extra-time before the match was eventually settled by penalties with Duhok’s Syrian duo of Ali Dyab and Burhan Sahyouni both firing their efforts over the crossbar to give the hosts a 4-1 shootout win.
“We faced heavy big pressure before the match as we wanted to perform well and win the match in order to please our fans after our disappointing exit from the Kuwait Emir Cup. We played a good match and we achieved our target,” said Kuwait SC coach Marin Ion.
“We wasted many easy chances to score and the forwards didn’t score from the chances that we created. I want to thank the players for the great season they played and hopefully we can continue our successful title defence in the competition.”
Duhok made a good start to the game but it was the home side who took the lead after 24 minutes.
They were awarded a penalty after Fahad Awad was fouled in the box by Dyab and Hammami made no mistake as he beat goalkeeper Alaa Gatea from the spot to put Kuwait SC a goal up.
Duhok applied much of the pressure after the goal and their endeavours were rewarded when they pulled level nine minutes into the second half.
Ala'a Abdulzehra was unlucky not to score as his powerful shot from just outside the area hit the woodwork but Saleh Sadeer was on hand to turn the rebound into the empty net.
Both teams were unable to add to the score in the remaining minutes of regulation time and in the additional half-hour of extra-time so the tie went down to the dreaded penalty shootout.
The Kuwaiti side had no problem with their spot kicks as they converted all four of their attempts but after Alaa Abdulzehra had put away his side’s first penalty, Dyab and Sahyouni both squandered their chances to keep their side in the contest.
“We put in a good performance today and we were good representatives for Iraqi football in the competition. We lost against the defending champions and we were unlucky tonight but this is football,” said Duhok coach Fajer Ebrahim.
“We conceded a goal from a bad defensive mistake but we managed to fix the mistakes that we had in the second period and we performed better. We could have won the match but our forwards were not at their best today.”
Photo: WSG