The Lebanese football team achieved a massive victory over the Maldives national team 6-0, including a hat-trick by its star Hussein Shukroun, in the first of its two friendly international matches in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.
At Dolin Omurzakov Stadium, the “Cedar Men” dominated the match from the beginning, as their first chance came in the 3rd minute after a cross from Badr Qawam, followed by Jimmy Kazan, and goalkeeper Hussein Sharif blocked it. But the same minute brought the first goal for the Lebanese when Hassan Sorour snatched the ball from Amdhan Ali and played it quickly to Shukroun, who converted it with a powerful shot that bounced off the left post and into the net.
Lebanon strengthened its possession after Kyrgyz referee Alimadrun Bainzarov raised the red card in the face of Maldives captain Samouh Ali after he was attacked by striker Leonardo Shaheen alone outside the penalty area (11).
The second goal came in the 36th minute when Jimmy Kazan fired a shot from outside the area that bounced off Shukroun and deceived the Maldivian goalkeeper.
Not even 5 minutes had passed until Shukroun completed the hat-trick after playing a forehand ball to Sami Merhej that was cleared by the defense and returned to him, so he shot it directly into the net.
Before the start of the second half, Algerian coach Madjid Bougherra made five substitutions in his squad. One of the substitutes, Hassan Kaafarani, was behind the fourth goal in the 53rd minute after his cross rebounded from defender Hassan Rachid into the net.
The other substitute, Wahbi Fawaz, was close to adding the fifth goal after a cross pass from Mahmoud Zbib. He shot it from close range and it bounced off the crossbar, before he himself passed the ball to the unmarked Ali Qassas, who shot it to the right of the goalkeeper, adding the fifth goal (83).
The scene was repeated in the second minute of stoppage time, when Fawaz headed a high ball to Qassas, who had no difficulty placing it into the net easily.
The Lebanese national team will play its second match in Kyrgyzstan against the host country next Sunday.
After 12 years, “Khaleeji 27” brought together in the semi-finals the same quartet that attended this round in “Khaleeji 22” in Riyadh in 2014. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the Emirates and Oman witnessed a harsh fall for Kuwait, the record holder with ten titles, and Bahrain, the title holder, as they left the group stage without a single point, while Yemen exited the tournament after scoring five goals in one match for the first time in its history.
What is noteworthy is that history brought back the four names, but it rearranged the confrontations. Saudi Arabia will face Qatar, while the UAE will meet Oman. In the 2014 edition, Al-Akhdar advanced to the final by defeating the Emirates 3-2 with goals from Nasser Al-Shamrani, Nawaf Al-Abed and Salem Al-Dosari, versus a brace by Ahmed Khalil, while Qatar overcame Oman 3-1 with goals from Ali Asad and a goal from Hassan Al-Haydos, versus a goal from Raed Ibrahim.
The final of that edition ended with Qatar being crowned after its victory over Saudi Arabia 2-1, putting them face to face this time before the final, in one of the most prominent semi-final confrontations.
Qatar enters the confrontation after finishing the second group in second place with seven points, after drawing with the UAE 1-1 in the last round, a match that kept the UAE in the lead on goal difference. Al-Annabi took the lead with a goal from Al-Moez Ali in the 32nd minute, before Ali Saleh equalized the score for the Emirates in the 45th minute + 4.
Before facing Saudi Arabia, the pressure of matches emerged as the biggest concern for Spanish coach Julen Lopetegui, coach of Qatar, after he revealed that he had made many changes against the UAE because his team was playing its third match in six days.
Lopetegui said: “It was a difficult match. We played against a very strong and high-quality team, and we competed well with them. “I changed a lot of players, because this was our third match in 6 days, but we fought until the last minutes.”
He added: “I think we are competing strongly, and we achieved 7 points, and this is an achievement under this pressure, because the competition is very difficult, in addition to the harsh weather.”
Regarding Saudi Arabia, he said: “The Saudi national team is a very strong team, with high-quality players and strong players, but we will be competitive against them. What matters to me now is the recovery of the players, after the pressure of the matches we played during this period.”
As for Ahmed Al-Janahi, the Qatari player, he summarized the nature of the confrontation by saying: “The Saudi national team is difficult, especially in the middle of their stadium and in front of their fans, but we are the Asian champions in the last two editions as well,” explaining that the pressure of playing a match every two days was behind the changes in the technical staff during the matches.
At the other end of the semi-final, the UAE faces Oman after the UAE team took the lead in its group with seven points and a goal difference over Qatar.
Croatian Zlatko Dalic, coach of the Emirates, confirmed that his team was able to control the match against Qatar, especially in the second half, expressing his happiness with the young players who participated, and at the same time stressing the need for caution in the qualifying matches.
He said about the confrontation with Oman: “It is a strong team and a team that should not be underestimated. We have respect for what it has achieved, and we will try to make every effort to achieve victory in the next match.”
If the semi-finals brought back the 2014 quadruple, the other end of the group score brought an unprecedented downfall for Kuwait, the record holder with ten titles, as it ended its participation for the first time in its history without obtaining any point.
“Al-Azraq” lost its three matches against Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Oman, and concluded its campaign with a loss against Oman 1-3, despite taking the lead with a goal by Shabib Al-Khalidi in the sixth minute, before Nasser Al-Rawahi scored two goals in the 65th and 81st minutes, and Musab Al-Shaqsi added the third in the 84th minute.
Rashid Badih, the former Kuwaiti star, said that the team lacked “thought-out sentences and solutions in difficult times,” in addition to the absence of the playmaker and poor physical condition, while Abdulaziz Hassan considered that the problem was the failure to maintain performance and manage the match when its circumstances changed.
Walid Ali also linked the decline to local competitions, considering that the Kuwaiti league format does not sufficiently qualify players to compete with Gulf teams whose leagues have developed, while Saleh Al-Buraiki believed that Portuguese coach Helio Sousa received sufficient time through camps and matches without providing the required tactical return.
If Kuwait's exit without a point happened for the first time, then Bahrain, the defending champion, also experienced a harsh end, after losing its three matches to Qatar 0-2, the UAE 0-3, and Yemen 2-5, to leave the tournament without any point.
The end against Yemen was the most exciting. Bahrain took the lead with Ali Al-Dosari's goal in the sixth minute, before Yemen scored four goals during the remainder of the first half, through Nasser Muhammadu (18), Abdul Wase' Al-Matari (31), Rami Al-Wasmani (40), and Adel Abbas (44).
Ali Madan reduced the gap for Bahrain in the 67th minute, before Al-Wasmani completed the five-pointer in the 90th + 6th minute, giving Yemen an unprecedented achievement by scoring five goals in one match for the first time in its participation in the Gulf Cup.
Ironically, the second Yemeni historical stage came in front of the same competitor. In “Gulf 26” in Kuwait, Yemen achieved its first victory in the history of the Gulf Cup when it defeated Bahrain 2-1, then came back against them in Jeddah to record its highest scoring tally in a single match.
Despite the five-point win, Yemen left the competition in third place with three points, after having lost to the UAE 0-4 and Qatar 0-1, while Bahrain remained at the bottom of the group without a score.
On the other hand, Iraq's departure was the most dramatic, after it found itself equal to Oman in the qualifying race for Group A, following its loss to Saudi Arabia 0-2 and Oman's victory over Kuwait 3-1 in the final round. The tie continued between the two teams after resorting to comparison criteria, including goals and cards, until the competition reached the last option, the draw, which smiled at Oman and granted it a semi-final ticket, while the “Lions of Mesopotamia” left “Gulf 27” with one of the most cruel and dramatic endings of the group stage.
