12 Feb 2015
Doha, 12 February 2015. Aspire Academy striker Hassan Ahmad Palang really gave Real Madrid’s defense a hard time in their placement game at the ‘Al Kass International Cup’ on Thursday: The 16-year-old put his team up 2-0 (21’, 31’), but the Spaniards fought back and took a 3-2 lead shortly after the half-time break. The Qatari created a couple of good chances to equalize, but they were unlucky – above all Nasser Abdulsalam Alahrak, whose penalty was saved by Real Madrid-keeper Correa (82’). “It was a good performance of our players against a strong Real Madrid team.
The start was perfect, in the second half we were a bit unlucky, because the penalty could have been another turning point, but that’s football and games like this are very important for the development of our young players,” said Aspire Academy head coach Mohamed Ahmed Al Shafai. Real Madrid's head coach acknowledged Aspire Academy’s strong performance: “It wasn’t easy for us today, because Aspire Academy made us work hard and they played a good game.” “We tried our best, but we made some small mistakes and that’s something you can’t do against a team like Real Madrid. But we will keep working on preventing these mistakes in the future and playing at such a prestigious tournament was a great experience for us,” said two-times goal scorer Hassan Ahmad Palang, who was also awarded as the game's "MVP".