MUSCAT - Hosts Oman crashed out of the
Asian Football Confederation’s Under-14 Football Festival after losing to
neighbours United Arab Emirates 1-5 in a league match at the Sultan Qaboos
Sports Complex yesterday.
It was Oman’s second defeat in the festival and their campaign ended there.
The UAE, scoring their second win, topped the group and qualified for the
semifinals, which will be played tomorrow. Today is a rest day.
The UAE, who will take on Qatar in the semifinals, were in a dominant mood
as they toyed around the Oman defence to score at will.
The scoring act started after the UAE parried away a few Omani raids in the
first ten minutes with Mohammed Said opening the account in the 14th minute.
Six minutes later John Adshead-coached hosts suffered another set back when
Abdullah Said was on target with a perfect kick.
Leading 2-0, UAE was surprised by a flashy move by the hosts in the first
minute of the second half. Oman’s Fuad Abdullah succeeded in breaking the
UAE shackles to find the net.
But that was all Oman could do in the match as their persistent raids failed
to get past the solid defence put up by the UAE.
In the 54th minute, Mohammed Said widened the lead and just after a minute
Hamdan Qassim made it 4-1 for the UAE. As if that was not enough, Khalifa
Mohammed struck the fifth goal for the Emirates during the injury time.
In another match, Qatar blanked Iraq 3-0 after a barren first half. In the
40th minute of the second half, Khalfan Ibrahim put Qatar ahead and 15
minutes later Khamis Mohammed made it 2-0. The tally was rounded up in the
injury time when Abdullah Alali struck the third goal for Qatar, which
helped them to finish second in the group.
In the third match of the day, Iran trounced Lebanon 5-0 to finish on top
and set up a semifinal clash against Jordan.