Muscat: Al Nahda club put one foot in the semifinal of His Majesty’s Cup football as they defeated Al Oruba 3-1 in the first leg of their quarterfinals on Monday.
At Al Buraimi Sports Complex, national team player Omar al Malki put his team Al Nahda ahead as he scored an early goal in the first 12 seconds of the match. Later, Abubaker Demba doubled his team lead before first half end. Al Malki came back again to score the third goal to confirm Al Buraimi representative club's triumph.
Al Asim al Harthy scored the consultation goal for Al Oruba in the dying minutes. Al Oruba will be in a difficult assignment when they will host Al Nahda for the second leg match on February 9 at Sur Sports Complex.
AL SUWAIQ HOLD ADVANTAGE
In an earlier first leg quarterfinal match on Sunday, Al Suwaiq passed their half way to the semifinals stage after they thrashed Al Bashayer 3-0 at Al Rustaq Sports Complex.
Oman national team player Esam al Subhi was the star of the match as he netted two goals (19th and 84th minutes) while Omid Okri (30th) struck the second goal.
The first goal of Esam came as he benefited from Al Bashayer defender's mistake to take the ball and send it to the net. Eleven minutes later, Okri doubled the lead of the hosts as he netted the second goal of Al Suwaiq from the same side after he broke the defence of the opponents to face the goalie inside the box and shot a strong ball to the net.
Esam took advantage of Al Bashayer’s goalkeeper's position outside the box to loop the ball over him and struck the third goal for Al Suwaiq. The triumph eased Northern Batinah team’s way to the next round but Al Bashayer have all the chances to fight until last moment despite the difficulty of the forthcoming encounter.
Last edition’s runners-up Al Rustaq, snatched a crucial win as they beat Oman Club 1-0 at Seeb Stadium. The all-important goal in the game was scored by Mohammed al Ghafri in the 56th minute. The second leg match will take place on February 10 at Al Rustaq Sports Complex and the match will kick off at 8:15 pm.
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