18 Oct 2016
Manama, 18 October 2016. Qatar U-19 team picked up their first win of the AFC U-19 Championship Bahrain 2016 encounter on Monday (17th October) night courtesy of a 1-0 win over Yemen. A strike from Abdulrasheed Umaru in the 83rd minute was enough to propel Qatar into second place in Group C leaders on same tally of fourth points with group leaders Japan.
Among the highlights of the feisty match was a brilliant save from Qatari goalkeeper, Mohammed Al Bakari just after the break when Yemeni striker Ahmed Al Sarori beat his marker and burst into the box. At the other end Qatari captain Abdullah Abdulsalam’s out swinging corner almost produced the opening goal as Adel Al Hamad connected to a Tarek Salman knockdown with a diving header but Yemen were thankful to their man at the near post, Esam Mahdi, who hook the ball off the line and preserve parity.
The tightly contested match looked to be heading for a draw until Ahmad found substitute Abdulrasheed Umaru with a through ball which the latter latched onto to score the vital goal. Made up of all- Aspire graduate students and current students, the Qatar U-19 side winds up the group games with a clash against Japan on Thursday, the 20th October.
Speaking after the match, Qatar U-19 coach, Oscar Cano said, "We want to congratulate Yemen. We couldn't play our usual style of football and didn't feel comfortable throughout. As the game went by, the only way to win was to be brave and be aggressive. We knew a single run from one of our players could change things and that's what happened.
"We've had lots of bad luck in the past with injuries and also in the last match against Iran, so perhaps this is football giving some of the luck back, luck that Yemen didn't have. The important thing is we're still in it going into the last day of matches."
His opposite number, Mohammed Al Nufiay responded, "My team did their best today. We had the better chances and we were close to winning but we made a few mistakes. We were full of confidence going into this game and we tried our best. We changed our game plan in the second half and tried hard but it was not to be." Concluded Al Nufiay
The result means Qatar join Japan at the top of Group C on four points, with Iran on two and Yemen eliminated with no points from two games.