Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Shah Alam: Qatar champions Al Sadd came from a goal behind to finish first in the Zone 1 qualifications of AFC Futsal Club Championship 2013 by beating Lebanon’s Al Sadaka 5-2 at the Panasonic Sports Complex on Wednesday.
Both the sides were qualified for the August finals to be held in Nagoya after winning their respective semi-finals convincingly on Tuesday. They will join Chonburi Bluewave, Shenzhen Nanling, Thai Son Nam and the league champions of Iran, Uzbekistan and Japan in the finals.
With both sides remaining unbeaten so far in this competition, both the coaches wanted to continue their good run in the tournament but Al Sadd were looking more compact side in the beginning despite conceding an early goal to the Lebanese.
“We wanted to win this competition more than any other sides playing so at the end we won so everyone in the camp are happy,” Al Sadd coach Mohammed Eisa.
“This is a great psychological advantage for us going into the final. We are unbeaten throughout the competition and prior to that also we played some quality friendlies and remained unbeaten,” he added.
Serbian Kosta Markovic, playing in his first match of the competition, opened Sadaka account within just two minutes of the match. However, the Lebanese struggled to pressure Al Sadd who hit the bar as many as six times in the match.
Mohamed Ismail, who did not play in the semi-final, brought Al Sadd back in the match by notching an equalizer in the 12th minute through a rebound.
After hitting the bar four times earlier, Al Sadd were lucky in the fifth time when the rebound landed just in front of unmarked Mohammed Ibrahim Rashid who rounded off goalie Rabie El Kakhi to put Al Sadd in lead for the first time in the match.
Al Sadaka’s Hassan Chaito gave a life-line to the Lebanese by scoring the equalizer four minutes before the full time but an own goal by Marwan Gorges and a brilliant Rashid goal from his own territory during the Power-play sealed the win for the Qataris. Al Sadd captain Amro Mohssein also scored a late goal to make it 5-2.
“We were physically very tired after yesterday’s semi-final,” conceded Al Sadaka coach Hussein Dib. “Anyway, our goal was to qualify and we qualified it’s time to look for the achievement and enjoy it,” he added.
Goals
| **Al Sadaka ** | **Al Sadd** |
| Kosta Markovic 2' | Mohamed Ibrahim 31', 39' |
| Hasan Chaito 36' | Mohamed Ismail 13' |
| Marwan Gorges 37' (o.g.) | |
| Amro Mohssein 40' |