Oman beach soccer team suffered their first loss at the second CIS Games against Egypt as the latter defeated Oman team 6-3 on Sunday in Belarus. With the victory, Egypt have kept themselves on track for a place in the semifinal with three points in their kitty and one match to play against Uzbekistan on Monday. Egypt suffered a 5-0 loss against Russia in the opening match on Saturday.
Despite the defeat against Egypt, Oman chances are still alive to progress into the semifinals as they will take on Russia on Monday in a crucial fixture. The national team, led by the long-serving national head coach Talib Hilal, had commenced their campaign strongly with a 13-1 victory over Uzbekistan in the opener.
Oman’s head coach began the match against the champions of 2023 Arab Beach Soccer Championship with a starting line-up featuring Younis al Owaisi as the goalkeeper. The defence line-up comprised Mashal al Araimi while Yahya al Murkhi monitored the centre. Both strikers Abdullah al Souti and Nooh al Zadjali formed the attacking line. Many substitutions were made by the coach during all the sets of the match.
The opposing Egyptian players began the match strongly and were seeking for an early goal and they struck early to lead 1-0. Oman’s Abdullah al Souti equalised after a strong shot by the goalie Younis al Owaisi was guided by Al Souti to the net. Later, the Egyptian strikers got more opportunities and they managed to have a proper finish to lead 2-1. Oman’s men bounced back strongly as Sami al Balushi levelled the scores at 2-2.
Oman, who were very dominant in the 13-1 victory over Uzbekistan in the opening match, made some defensive mistakes which benefited the rivals to end the opening set at 3-1 after their Egyptian striker scored from a header.
In the following set, Oman players could not show their solid performance of the early stages while the opponents took the advantage to enforce themselves and they succeeded to strike two goals to make the result at 5-2. In the concluding set, Oman’s players worked very hard to create some opportunities. After several attempts, Sami al Balushi managed to reduce the margin to 5-3. Before the end of the third set, the Egyptian forward netted their sixth goal to confirm their 6-3 triumph.
In Group A, hosts Belarus thrashed the UAE 5-2 in their opening game while Iran beat Azerbaijan 3-1 in the other match.
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