Wednesday, October 12, 2011
At the Municipal Stadium in Rawalpindi, the 2009 champions KRL came from 0-1 down to beat Army after a grueling fight. This was the 12th win from KRL from 13 games which took their points tally to 37 from 13 meetings. The defeat left Army at 19 points from 13 matches.
Ansar Javed put Army ahead in the 20th minute. At half-time, soldiers were leading 1-0. Soon after the breather, KRL, under coach Tariq Lutfi, bounced back with an equaliser from Kamran. At this stage, both sides gave tough time to each other but it were KRL who took the decisive lead through Kaleemullah in the 81st minute to help his side clinch three crucial points.
Meanwhile, at the Sadiq Shaheed Stadium in Quetta, Habib Bank proved too tough for newly promoted Police to leapfrog to the third spot with 32 points from 18 appearances.
Zakir Lashari emerged as the hero for Habib Bank with a brace that came in the 43rd and 70th minute while he was joined by Mohammad Atif on the score-sheet with a strike in the 72nd minute.
“All the boys played extremely well today,” Habib Bank manager Yousuf Khan told ‘The News’ from Quetta.
“This round is very important for us and I hope that the team will click here,” he said.
This was the ninth loss for Police and they have 15 points from the same number of appearances.
In other match at the same venue, Chaman’s Afghan FC elevated to the fourth spot with a close 3-2 triumph over strong Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC).
Afghan FC went ahead through Azizullah in the 19th minute before skipper Jadeed Khan Pathan doubled their lead with an excellent field goal in the 39th minute.
At half-time, Afghan FC had 2-0 edge. Jadeed Khan put KESC 3-0 ahead with his second goal in the 57th minute.
After finding themselves in deep trouble, KESC, who were missing their skipper Mohammad Essa, went all out but were only able to reduce their deficit to 2-3 through goals from Aurangzeb Senior and Mohammad Rasool.
The outcome in favour of Afghan FC inflated their tally to 29 from 14 matches while KESC have 28 points from 17 meetings.
Today’s fixtures: PAF v Navy (Municipal Stadium, Rawalpindi), Balochistan v PIA (Sadiq Shaheed Stadium, Quetta), Muslim FC v NBP (Sadiq Shaheed Stadium, Quetta).