By Natasha Raheel
KARACHI:
Home teams dominated proceedings in the Pakistan Premier Football League (PPFL), as Karachi Port Trust (KPT) defeated Pakistan Navy 2-1, while Habib Bank Limited (HBL) held Pakistan Army to a 1-1 draw.
Pakistan Police also won their opening match against PMC Athletico 1-0 in Quetta.
In an exciting end to the first match of the day, Navy’s Mohammad Ahsan struck the equaliser just two minutes before time, after Naveed Ahmed had given KPT the lead in the 58th minute. However, Zafar Majeed sealed victory for KPT, scoring the winner in stoppage time.
KPT captain Akhtar Mamoul was delighted with the win.
“It was encouraging to win our opening match,” Mamoul told The Express Tribune. “Credit goes to Majeed and the whole team.”
Meanwhile, Army struggled for form as they only managed a draw against HBL. HBL’s Mohammad Atif scored in the 31st minute, with Army’s Mohammad Imran equalising just three minutes before the interval.
Army coach Major Shafqat said that his team had suffered its worst start to the tournament in five years and felt that his team was finding it hard to adjust to Karachi’s weather.
“The weather makes a huge difference,” he said. “My players have trained in Islamabad and get tired too soon in this weather. It’s humid and windy and that affects ball movement on the pitch.”
In the last match of the day Police’s Waseem Abbas scored the winner in the 65th minute against PMC Athletico.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 8th, 2011.
Great day! Good win for KPT. I hope they can keep up this form. Good point for HBL as well. Perfect start to the season for them.
KPT open PPFL campaign with last-gasp win
Alam Zeb Safi
KARACHI: Karachi Port Trust (KPT) were off to a flying start when they beat Navy 2-1 in their opener while Habib Bank Limited (HBL) once again made a valiant effort when they held former champions Army to a 1-1 draw in their matches of the eighth edition of the Pakistan Premier Football League here on Thursday.
At the KPT Football Stadium, Navy, under coach Khalid Zubair, displayed some fine skills but they were unable produce a goal in the first-half.
However, in the second-half, KPT showed a great improvement, inflicting terrific rallies from both wings and took the initiative in the 58th minute when Mohammad Naved struck from close range due to goalkeeping blunder.
After going 0-1 down, Navy made few quick changes which paid dividends as they bounced back with an 88th minute strike from Mohammad Adnan. At this stage, it seemed that the match would end in a tie but KPT inflicted a fine move from the left wing and it was Zafar Majeed who scored the winner in injury time.
“Our four key players were injured. But still our boys played an upper hand but we were unlucky not to score more goals,” Navy coach Khalid Zubair said.
At the Peoples Sports Complex, Habib Bank, who are short of players, put up a fine effort once again to hold Army to a 1-1 draw in front of good crowd. After a composed half an hour play, Habib Bank took the lead with a super solo effort from Atif in the 31st minute. But their jubilation did not last for long as they were shocked by Army with an equaliser from experienced international Mohammad Imran three minutes from half-time.
At the Sadiq Shaheed Stadium in Quetta, debutants Police entered the league with a win when they conquered PMC Athletico 1-0 with Waseem Abbas emerging as the protagonist with a 65th minute strike.
Today’s fixtures: Baloch FC v WAPDA (Sadiq Shaheed Stadium,Quetta),PEL v KRL (Sadiq Shaheed Stadium, Quetta), PIA v PAF (KPT Football Stadium, Karachi).