Muscat: Oman's Seeb and Dhofar posted close defeats in the AFC Cup first round matches late on Saturday. The Omantel League title holders missed the chance to secure a spot into the second round of AFC Cup after they suffered a 2-1 loss against three times champions Kuwait SC in Seeb.
In a Group B match in Kuwait City, Bahrain’s Al Riffa captured a 3-2 win over Salalah giants Dhofar after Kumail al Aswad scored the crucial goal for them in 90th minute from a penalty.
At Seeb Stadium, Fahad al Rushidi powered his Kuwaiti team to a crucial win by scoring the winner in the 64th minute. His team-mate Taha Yaseen put Kuwait SC ahead in the 45th minute but Mohsin al Ghassani equalised immediately. Later in the following half, Al Rushidi netted the winner. With the victory, the Kuwaiti club earned four points from two matches to lead the table. Seeb are second with three points from the opening game against Jableh of Syria.
On the other hand, Jableh snatched a thrilling 1-0 win over Lebanon’s Al Ansar in the same venue on Saturday in another Group A match. The Syrian club’s triumph kept chances alive for all the teams to progress from the group. Hussein al Juwayed netted the only goal in the crunch fixture in the dying minutes.
'Exhausted'
Seeb's Serbian coach Boris Bunjak said the team had played several games during the last 40 days. “Most of the players are exhausted and some of them are back from injury and we could not take risks with them,” he said.
The head coach of Seeb later said the strikers missed many scoring attempts. “If we could score from any missed chances then the match may end with a different result. Our players could manage to return into the match promptly but the Kuwaiti side scored the winning goal. Asian matches' quality are different from the local games as the opponents here have professional players besides the strong substitutions list. In this kind of strong competition, you need your substitutes at the same level of the starters and that can amend the final result,” he ended.
Seeb will meet Al Ansar while Kuwait SC’s last game see them face-off against Jableh with a win guaranteeing them the top spot on Tuesday. Dhofar will face Kuwait’s Al Arabi in a strong match with an aim of victory while Al Riffa will aim to win over Palestine's Shabab Al Khalil to claim the second spot in the group on the same day.
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