Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kota Bharu: Lebanese striker Mohamad Ghaddar scored a hat-trick as Kelantan notched up a 3-0 win over Arema Indonesia on Wednesday to move into contention for a place in the knockout rounds thanks to their first win of their 2012 AFC Cup campaign.
Ghaddar gave his side the lead in the 22nd minute when he sprung the Arema offside trap to run onto a long ball before slotting a left-foot shot past goalkeeper Denis Romanovs.
Two minutes after the restart, Ghaddar doubled his side's advantage when he met Badri Radzi's corner from the left with a glancing header and, with just seconds remaining, he made it 3-0 by beating two defenders to the ball before thumping a right-foot shot into the back of the net.
The win moves Kelantan on to four points from their first three games in Group H and the performance left coach Bojan Hodak delighted.
"I thought it was a very good game for us," he said. "Our finishing was better than them tonight but we also got a bit lucky because they hit the post before our third goal. But I thought we were the better team and deserved to win.
"(Ghaddar and I) had a chat before the game and he responded well.
"Now he has started scoring, I have a sweet problem. One month ago, everyone was complaining that our strikers couldn't score but now Ghaddar has started scoring and our Nigerian striker Nwoha Onyekachi also scored two in our last game. He was on the bench tonight so now I have to decide who is to play in our next game."
The result left Arema still looking for their first win of the campaign and coach Dejan Antonic was disappointed with his team's finishing.
"Both teams played a good game but Kelantan had four shots and scored three goals," said the former Hong Kong coach. "We had a lot of chances but we didn't take them.
"Our young players have not had enough experience in international matches and they still have much to learn. But we deserved to lose because we could not turn our chances into goals."