Al Amma’ri end KRL’s misery

Dushanbe: Al Amma’ri Youth Club of Palestine came back from a goal down to storm into the final of the AFC President’s Cup 2012 with an impressive 5-1 victory over Pakistan’s KRL Football Club here on Friday at the Dushanbe Central Stadium.

Needing a 3-0 win to book their spot in the final ahead of defending champions Taiwan Power Company from Group B, the Palestinian debutants were stunned when Saad Ullah fired Tariq Lutfi’s men into the lead. But Raed Yousef Juma Assaf’s team rallied almost immediately and equalised through Ayed Jamhour’s header, and never looked back after that.

The match virtually ended for the Pakistani champions when Sulaiman Obaid struck twice in devastating fashion in the 54th and 56th minutes. To compound matters, Obaid was tripped inside the KRL box by Zeeshan Muhammaed on the hour and the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot from which Jamhour sent the ball crashing past the hapless goalkeeper Saqib Hanif.

The fifth goal came in the 70th minute after a defensive goof-up by the Pakistani club which was immediately punished by Jamal Al Wisat with an easy tap-in.

“Yes, we expected this win,” said a delighted Al Amma’ri coach Assaf after the match. “Thank God for this win.”

Assaf said his men knew they needed to win by three goals and this made them hasty in the first half.

“They were rushing to score and this was not needed. After the break I told them to focus and changed the formation.”

The coach also put Obaid behind the strikers and this paid dividends almost immediately.

“I switched the positions of both Jamhour and Obaid and they combined reasonably well. We put pressure on KRL.”

The Pakistani outfit missed some chances in the first 30 minutes but got their act together towards the end of the first period, leading to Saad Ullah’s goal off a mistake by the rival defenders.

“We lost the last match 3-1 against TPC and I told my boys that we need to salvage our pride,” said KRL coach Lutfi. “But unfortunately we were equal only in the first half and our defence became disorganised in the second half and we conceded many goals.”

The turning point of the game was Al Amma’ri’s newlook 3-4-3 which caught the Pakistanis unawares.

Obaid turned up the heat with his successive goals and the disorientation of the rival defence helped matters.

“I think we should have scored more goals. The second goal really helped us and from then on it was going to be easy,” said Assaf, who thanked the players for their efforts.

“My men did really well and their performance has made the whole of Palestine very happy.”

From: The-AFC.com