Qatar is the first to qualify for the quarter-finals, Syria defeats Tunisia, and the UAE beats Mauritania

Posted in: 03/12/2021 – 22:38

The host Qatari team became the first to qualify for the quarter-finals of the tenth edition ofArab Football CupOn Friday, he scored a fatal victory over his Omani counterpart 2-1 at Education City Stadium in the second round of Group A matches, which witnessed a negative tie between Iraq and Bahrain. Later, the UAE defeated Mauritania with one goal and Syria over Tunisia with two goals to nothing in the second group competitions.

At a time when the match between Qatar and Oman was heading to a tie with goals by Akram Afif for Qatar (31 from a penalty kick) and Khaled Al-Hajri for Oman (37), until the last seconds of the seventh minute calculated from stoppage time, Oman defender Durbin Fahmy scored an own goal after hitting With the ball after a header from Al-Moez Ali to cross the goal line by centimeters, confirmed by the VAR technology (90 + 7).

Al Annabi became the first to qualify officially, after raising his tally of six points, ensuring the top of the group after an inaugural victory over Bahrain (1-0) against Iraq (two points), Oman and Bahrain (one point each).

After the match, Croatian coach Branko Ivankovic questioned some of the arbitration decisions, saying that “the second goal is correct, as the ball crossed the line as I saw, but I think that the penalty kick that the Qatari team received was not correct at all.”

He continued, “I am also surprised that player No. 15 (Bassam Al-Rawi) was not expelled after deliberately hitting the elbow… In general, I can only congratulate the players for their performance, especially in the second half. It is the second match that turned against us in overtime, as we tied with Iraq and lost Against Qatar, with an inexplicable scenario, and I can’t blame the players.”

In turn, Spanish coach Felix Sanchez considered that the victory “was very important… A late goal gave us the three points, qualification and the lead in the group. It was a difficult match as we expected, the Omani team presented a different second half and created problems for us.”

He added, “We will not choose the opponent in the quarter-finals, of course, the vision is not yet clear in the second group, which team will qualify will have deserved it and we will prepare as it should, but we still have a third match against the Iraqi team that we will play to win regardless of the formation and names we will choose.”

“Essour Qasioun” shocks “Eagles of Carthage”

The Syrian team overturned the scales of Group B with an important victory over its Tunisian counterpart 2-0 at Al Bayt Stadium, with two goals scored by Oliver Isaac Kaskaou (4) and Muhammad Anz (47).

Thus, Syria won the first three points in the tournament, equal with the Tunisian team. The Syrians started the match strongly, and scored early, specifically in the fourth minute, when Cascao snatched the ball and shot from afar, surprising goalkeeper Farouk bin Mustafa.

The Tunisian team failed to penetrate the Syrian defenses on more than one occasion. Before the end of the first half, the Tunisian team lost the services of its player, Mohamed Ali Ben Ramadan, when he received a red card after hitting Anz in a joint ball.

As the Tunisians entered the second half in an effort to return with the result, the Syrian shock came with a wonderful goal from Anz with a long-range shot, which gave a clear moral superiority to the Syrians.

Emirates is approaching

The UAE took a big step towards the quarter-finals after its deadly victory over Mauritania 1-0 in their first ever international match.

Substitute Khalil Al Hammadi scored the UAE’s only goal in the third minute of calculated time instead of lost.

The UAE, which won its second successive victory over Syria 2-1, raised its score to 6 points at the top of Group B.

For its part, Mauritania failed to gain its first point in the Arab Cup, after it had lost against Bahrain and Iraq with the same score, 0-2, during its previous participation in the 1995 edition, and against Tunisia 1-5 in the first round of the current edition.

The Emirates, despite their clear control of the first half, waited until the last eight minutes to create the danger, but they collided with the remarkable brilliance of Mauritania goalkeeper Mbaki Ndayi.

A disappointing tie between Iraq and Bahrain

At the time of the race, a disappointing negative draw decided the confrontation of Iraq and Bahrain at Al Thumama Stadium.

This is Bahrain’s third draw against Iraq, led by Portuguese Heliwa Sousa, who won two victories over the “Lions of Mesopotamia”.

“We played conservatively in the first third of the match and then entered the atmosphere of the match, and we were the most dangerous and best in the course of the match, but we suffered from physical effort in the last ten minutes, and it seemed clear to our players fatigue, and more than one player was You need to switch after you run out of substitutions.”

Regarding the team’s inability to win in the last nine matches, “We have to be positive, we need one to two ready players from the playmakers, and here I do not want to criticize anyone, with all due respect to all the clubs in Iraq,” referring to the clubs’ inability to Presenting such players.

The Iraqi Federation assigned Petrovic (the assistant coach in the technical staff) to lead the training of the Iraqi national team, replacing former Dutch coach Dick Advocaat, who resigned due to poor results days before the start of the Arab Cup.

The Bahraini team began the match with a quick performance and early offensive attempts to reach Iraq’s goal, due to which the latter’s players were forced to retreat and secure tight defensive coverage in the face of those attempts.

In the second half of the first half, the performance and style of the Iraqi team improved, and its offensive attempts, led by Muhammad Qassem, were activated on more than one occasion.

The second half witnessed an offensive debate between the two teams before the Iraqi team imposed its hegemony in the last quarter of an hour, but to no avail.

FRANCE 24/AFP