Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Baghdad: Al Shorta booked their place in next year’s AFC Cup by winning the 2012/13 Iraq Premier League title with a 3-0 victory over Al Talaba on the final day of the season maintaining the two-point gap ahead of closest challengers and defending champions Arbil.
Hussein Kareem opened the scoring 27 minutes into the first half before Nigerian striker Minusu Buba, who is on-loan from Egyptian side El Gouna, doubled Al Shorta’s advantage in the 69th minute.
And with ten minutes left to play promising 19-year-old left-back Dhurgham Ismael, who has already featured for the senior Iraq national team in heir 2015 AFC Asian Cup and 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaigns, sealed the win that confirmed Al Shorta’s third Iraq league title.
Arbil got the win they needed to keep alive their slim hopes of pipping Al Shorta to the title as Amjed Radhi, scorer of seven goals in Arbil’s run to the Round of 16 in this year’s AFC Cup, consolidated his position as the Iraq league’s leading marksman by netting his 24 of the season as the defending champions defeated Al Najaf 1-0 in their final fixture.