MUSCAT, Jan 31 -
Newly promoted Nizwa broke Dhofar’s streak of consecutive victories as the Salalah giants were held to a 1-1 draw at the Nizwa Sports Complex on Sunday in the eighth week of Omantel League.
With this result, the gap between league leaders Seeb and second-placed Dhofar rose to six points.
Rasheed Jaber’s men took the lead as Yaseen al Shaikh scored the opening goal in the 46th minute while the equaliser came through Abdul Hameed al Mandhari in the 62nd minute.
Despite the substitutions made by Dhofar head coach Jaber, the hosts’ defence was very strong and broke all the scoring attempts by the visitors’ strikers.
With the draw, Dhofar remained in second position and the new tally of the team is 16 points, while Nizwa are in the eleventh place with five points.
Bahla snatched a crucial 2-1 victory over Al Suwaiq at Al Rustaq Sports Complex in a thrilling encounter.
The visitors began the scoring as Jansaah Robert scored the first goal in the 44th minute and the first half ended with Bahla in front.
In the second half, Essam al Barhi pulled level for Al Suwaiq as he netted in the 55th minute. Younis al Riyami netted the all-important goal for Bahla in the 86th minute as he delivered three crucial points for his team.
With the win, Bahla have 11 points and are at sixth place while Al Suwaiq remained on 13 points in the fourth position.
In the other fixtures earlier on Saturday, unbeaten team in the league, Seeb, continued their impressive run on the top of the league as they trashed Muscat 4-0 at Seeb Stadium.
Seeb have registered seven victories in the league and one draw against Al Ittihad. The triumph took the league holders to 22 points while the capital city team is struggling in the league bottom order with three points from eight games. Seeb’s heroes and top scorers in the league Abdulaziz al Maqbali and Salah al Yahyaei struck two goals each in the game.
Al Maqbali scored the opening goal from a penalty in the first half.
Al Yahyaei registered a strong comeback in the second half as he netted the second and third goals while Al Maqbali ended the scoring campaign with the fourth goal.
The North Batinah team, Sohar, were still struggling in the league as they suffered the fifth loss in the league against Al Nahda. The only goal in the match, which was played at Sohar Sports Complex, was scored by Mohammed Khaseeb in the 50th minute. The guests were the best side in the match and the strikers were seeking goals from the start.
In the second half, Al Buraimi team players managed to break the defence of the hosts as they netted the winning goal.
Sohar’s team played with 10 players in the second half after 70th minute but that did not assist Al Nahda to increase the goal margin.
Al Ittihad’s Abdullah Zaher spoiled Musannah’s victory as he struck the equaliser in the dying minutes to end the match in a 1-1 draw at Al Rustaq Sports Complex.
With the draw, Al Ittihad snatched one crucial point.
The first half ended in a goalless draw while the exciting part in the match began in 85th minute as Majid al Saadi scored for the hosts and the match appeared to be heading in favour of Musannah.
However, Al Ittihad’s Abdullah Zaher al Mughnna broke all the expectations as he netted the equaliser in the 92nd minute. With the draw, Musannah have 14 points while Al Ittihad have eight points.
The match between Al Rustaq and Al Nasr at the same venue ended in a goalless draw. Al Nasr added one point to the previous credit to reach 12 points while Al Rustaq possess 11 points.
Adil Al Balushi
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