Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Dammam: Kuwait Sports Club sealed their place in the AFC Cup final for the third time in four years after second-half goals by Rogerinho and Abdulhadi Khamis gave them a 2-0 away win over Saudi Arabia's Ettifaq at the Prince Mohammed bin Fahad Stadium on Tuesday.
Needing to overcome a 4-1 deficit from the first leg, the home side dominated the match but could find no way past goalkeeper Musab Al Kandari and the massed Kuwait SC defence.
Instead it was the visitors who grabbed two goals on the counterattack as Rogerinho (Rogério de Assis Silva Coutinho) and Khamis both found the net to seal an emphatic 6-1 aggregate victory for the Kuwaiti side, who won the competition in 2009 but lost in last year's final to Uzbek side Nasaf.
They will now travel to Iraq early next month for a meeting in the final with Arbil, who beat Thai side Chonburi 8-2 on aggregate in the other semi-final. The two teams previously met in the 2009 quarter-finals and last year's semi-finals with Kuwait SC prevailing on both occasions thanks to away wins at the Francouse Al Hareeri Stadium, the venue for this year's final.
Trailing by three goals, the onus was on Ettifaq to attack and they almost pulled a goal after only eight minutes when Zamil Al Saleem skipped past the challenge of Fahad Awad and surged into the box only to be denied by Al Kandari who stood his ground to make a fine save.
The home side got increasingly desperate as the half progressed without a breakthrough and Ahmed Ali Walibi was deservedly booked in the 29th minute after he tried to con the referee with an elaborate dive despite no contact at all by Husain Hakim.
Just after the half-hour, Junior Xuxa (Diogenes Alves de Miranda Junior) squandered a glorious opportunity when the ball was laid off to him by Al Saleem 10 metres from goal but the Brazilian shot wastefully over the crossbar.
The visitors barely threatened in the first half with their only real shot on goal coming from Hakim, whose free-kick in the 33rd minute when straight at goalkeeper Faiz Al Subaiei.
As half-time approached, Junior Xuxa's swerving free-kick from the right of the box was easily stopped by Al Kandari while Walibi's shot from a tight angle found the side-netting.
There was a scare for the Kuwait SC defence in the 53rd minute when Al Kandari dropped a high ball into the box but Fahad Awad alertly hooked the ball out for a corner before any of the Ettifaq players could pounce on the loose ball.
Having absorbed so much pressure, the visitors extended their aggregate lead in the 57th minute with a well-taken goal by Rogerinho. A shot by Abdullah Buraiki struck a defender and looped into the air towards the Brazilian who fired a volley into the net.
Al Kandari made an excellent save to keep out a 20-metre drive by Hamad Al Hamad and then denied Junior Xuxa from point blank range as Ettifaq desperately sought to cut the deficit.
But the contest was effectively ended in the 72nd minute when Kuwait SC launched a quick counter-attack with Rogerinho slipping a neat through ball towards the right flank to Nasser Al Qahtani who drew Al Subaiei of his line before clipping the ball to an unmarked Khamis, who headed into the empty net.