Muscat: The Sultanate of Oman suffered a 2-1 loss against African heavyweights Tunisia in the quarterfinal of the 2021 Fifa Arab Cup on Friday night.
The defeat ended Sultanate of Oman’s hopes at the Fifa championship while Tunisia’s triumph confirmed their presence in the semis.
Seifeddine Jaziri and Youssef Msakni ensured the victory for Tunisia with their 16th and 69th minute strikes, thanks to headers while Arshad al Alawi scored the consolation goal for the Sultanate of Oman team in the 66th minute.
Tunisian players began the match seeking the opening goal as they were the better side in the first half.
The opponent pressed hard and dominated the game. Tunisian created many scoring attempts through Youssef Msakni, Naim Sliti and Seifeddine Jaziri but they were all saved by Sultanate of Oman’s defenders and the goalkeeper Ibrahim al Mukhaini.
After continuous pressure from Tunisia's forward’s line, Seifeddine Jaziri put his team ahead after scoring the opening goal from header in the 16th minute.
The assist and perfect cross was made by Mohamed Hmida. The goal encouraged Tunisia to explore more goals.
Four minutes later from the goal, Mohamed Drager sent a strong ball towards Oman’s goalkeeper Ibrahim al Mukhaini but he went beside the crossbar.
The African representative team was dominated as the strikers eyed another goal.
Naim Sliti managed to send a strong ball and it went above the crossbar in the 35th minute.
Al Mukhaini made a good save for Sliti’s long strong ball in the 40th minute. The first appearance for Tunisia goalkeeper Mouez Hassan was in the last minute of first half as Al Mundher al Alawi crossed a ball towards Khalid al Hjri, who tried to guide the ball to the net but Mouez’s interception was in proper time to save the scoring chance. The first half ended with the opponent leading 1-0.
The first movement for Red Warriors in the second half was by Salah al Yahyei who decided to send a strong shot towards Mouez Hassan who saved the attempt in the 48th minute.
The Croatian coach, Branko Ivankovic, decided to replace Khalid Al Hajri and Al Mundher al Alawi by Issam al Subhi and Motaz Saleh in the 57th minute.
'Red Warriors' movement were better than the first half as they began to create many scoring attempts. Oman’s Arshad al Alawi managed to score the equaliser in the 66th minute after he sent a strong ball which entered the net. Three minutes later, Tunisian’s Youssef Msakni brought back his team in the lead as he netted the second goal from the header in the 69th minute.
The substitute Issam attempted some movements after his entrance to the field but the opponent’s defenders and goalkeeper broke all the experiments.
Oman’s head coach brought in Jameel al Yahmadi and Fahmi Durbin who replaced Abdullah Fawaz and Mahmood al Mushaifri respectively in the 72nd minute.
In the last ten minutes, Ivankovic’s men pressed hard seeking the equaliser and tried to bring the game back to square one through Issam al Subhi and substitute Mohsin al Ghassani's movements. Tunisian players managed to hold onto their lead with good control that thwarted Sultanate of Oman's attacks. The fixture ended 2-1 in favour of Tunisia.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
