Muscat: Oman team will eye only a victory as they will face the hosts Saudi Arabia to advance into the semis of the 2024 West Asian Championship. The match will kick off at 10:00 pm (Oman time) at King Fahd Sports City in Taif on Saturday. Yemen will meet Kuwait in another clash for the same group A. The match will be held at the same time in Ukadh city.
The national team suffered a 3-1 loss against Yemen on Thursday after a perfect start in the tournament with a 2-1 win over Kuwait last Tuesday. Saudi Arabia registered a 3-0 victory against Kuwait on Thursday. After completion of second round matches of group A, the hosts Saudi Arabia is on top of the group with four points followed by Yemen. Oman in third place with three points while Kuwait placed in fourth position with no points.
The national team did not show the desired performance against the Yemen team on Thursday. Yemen players began the match strongly as they managed to score the opening goal in the 5th minute by Abdulaziz Masnoom after receiving a cross into the box to convert the ball into the target. After five minutes , Oman’s Ghassan al Masrouri netted the equlaiser as he benefited from the defender’s mistake in the back side.
Before the first half ended, the referee announced a penalty to the Yemen team in the 45th minute. Essam Radman managed to convert the penalty into a goal to end the first half by 2-1 for Yemen. The active forward Abdulaziz Masnoom returned back again to enhance his team's lead as he netted the third goal in the 66th minute from a header after a cross by Anwar. In the remaining minutes, Coach Ahmed al Alawi’s boys worked hard to reduce the gap but all their attempts were broken by the opponent's defenders and the Yemen’s goalie Wadah Ahmed and the match ended at 3-1 for the Yemen team.
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