22 Jan 2018
Doha, 22 January 2018. Aspire Football Dreams begun their campaign in the 7th Al Kass international Cup with a 2-0 win over Fenerbahce of Turkey on Monday 22nd January in a Group B encounter played at Aspire Academy. Two goals in each half from midfielder Sibiry Keita and forward Christian Otabil condemned Fenerbahce to their second loss in as many days and leaves the match tomorrow between AFD and Real Madrid as the decider of first and second in the group.
With more accuracy AFD could have registered more goals but coach Serine Dia cut a frustrated figure as he watched his charges create numerous chances they couldn’t convert into goals. Fenerbahce for their part threatened on counter-attacks with forward Oguzhan Ozcan going close on a couple of occasions but they had to contend with AFD having the lions’ share of possession.
AFD opened the scoring midway in the first half when Keita chested down a high ball in the opposition box before half- volleying for the opening goal. A tale of missed chances followed before early in the second half some good work on the right wing led to a low cross that found Otabil in the box and he slotted it home for AFD’s second goal.
Keita walked away with the most valuable player of the match (MVP) award for his enterprising play. Speaking after the match, AFD head coach Dia said, “I am pleased with the win although we could have scored more than the two goals we got. Fenerbahce are a good side and gave us a tough game. Of course we could have scored more but that’s football and we will take the positives from this game among which is the number of scoring opportunities we made because on another day we will put these away. It’s a win we can build on and we will get better with each match.”
Meanwhile Fenerbahce head coach, Cengiz Aydin played complements to Al Kass International Cup, “It’s our first time at this prestigious tournament and we have been unfortunate to be drawn in a group with two former winners of this competition, in Real Madrid and Aspire Football Dreams and they were stronger than us. We will fight hard in the remaining matches to finish as high as we possibly can because Fenerbahce is a big team and we are here to uphold the name by competing hard. We hope to come back and play in this great tournament again.”