Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Khujand: Issam Jemaa scored twice as defending champions Kuwait Sports Club maintained their 100% record in this year’s AFC Cup with a 3-1 win over Tajikistan’s Regar-TadAZ in Group A on Tuesday.
Jemaa opened the scoring after 17 minutes for two-time AFC Cup champions Kuwait SC at 20 Years of Independence Tajikistan Stadium before doubling the visitors’ advantage two minutes before the hour mark.
Rogerinho (Rogério de Assis Silva Coutinho), who was named the inaugural AFC Foreign Player of the Year in 2012, added a third with 25 minutes remaining before substitute Firuz Rakhmatov grabbed a stoppage time consolation for AFC Cup debutants Regar-Tadaz, who suffered their second defeat of the campaign.
“I am happy with the result as we achieved a very important victory and claimed three points,” said Kuwait SC coach Marin Ion.
“We have a good chance to continue our participation into the next stage after this win, but we have to be careful in the remaining matches. If you feel like you do not have any problems, you will make problems for yourself so I hope we will play better in the future.”
Despite suffering a second defeat of the campaign, Regar-Tadaz only find themselves three poinst adrift of second place Safa, who beat Al Riffa 1-0 in Beirut, although Makhmadzhon Khabibulloev’s side must travel to Kuwait next week.
“Unfortunately we lost our home game. The fans came to the stadium to cheer us, but we couldn`t beat our opponent. Kuwait SC are a very strong team and they won AFC Cup last season. This team has a lot of high quality players and they showed it tonight,” said Khabibulloev.
“We began the match by conceding a goal and we made many mistakes during the match.
“We do not have a good chance of making the next round, but we will try to show good football to reach good results in every game. We should use these results to progress and raise our level against other teams.”