Saudi Arabia, Iraq through
Saudi Arabia and Iraq qualified for the finals of the AFC U-19 Championship with a match in hand after posting their third successive victories in Group A Qualifiers at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
Hitman Saleh Al Shehri struck the Group's first hattrick to propel Saudi Arabia to an emphatic 11-0 win over hapless Maldives while Iraq handed a 4-1 defeat to Oman in the second match, thus ending the hopes of Bangladesh and Oman of qualifying for the 16-team finals.
On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia and Iraq will lock horns to decide the group champions while hosts Bangladesh will face Oman in a place-standing match.
A mouth-watering clash was expected between the two Arab nations, but five-time champions Iraq took control of the match by taking a 3-0 lead in the first half, courtesy of goals from Mahdi Kamil, Ali Qasim and Jawad Kadhim in the 11th, 17th and 22nd minutes respectively.
Oman showed some nerves at the start of the second half and pulled one goal back through Saud Khamis who headed an Ahmed Khalfan cross home in the 47th minute.
Afterwards Oman launched some attacks but could not split the backline of Iraq, who strengthened their defence by sending on Mustafa after conceding the goal.
However, the fate of the match was put beyond doubt when Iraq scored the fourth from a collective move as Ali Qasim side-volleyed home a backheader from Al Naaimi in the 77th minute.
Three minutes later, both sides were reduced to ten men, but that hardly disturbed the scoreline.
In the day's first match, Saudi Arabia made light work of their qualification by putting 11 past hapless Maldives, who had already conceded 16 in their three previous matches.
The eleven goals the Saudis scored, not only gave them a thumping victory, but also took them above Iraqis on points table, thanks to a superior goal difference, before the two heavyweights face off on Wednesday.
The Saudis found the back of Maldives net five times in the first half before adding six in the second to take their goal-tally to 19 in three outings.
Apart from Shehri's first international treble, defender Ali Faraj, Jaber and Alolayan struck two goals each while Almuwallad and Asiri netted one apiece to complete the rout.
Two-time champions Saudi Arabia took just three minutes to open the scoring through defender Ali Faraj before taking a comfortable 5-0 lead in the first 45. They came harder on the Maldivians in the second half scoring six goals within the first 13 minutes.
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