UAE end Oman campaign, join Qatar, Iran and Jordan in semis

MUSCAT - Hosts Oman crashed out of the Asian Football Confederation’s Under-14 Football Festival after losing to neighbours United Arab Emirates 1-5 in a league match at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex yesterday.

It was Oman’s second defeat in the festival and their campaign ended there. The UAE, scoring their second win, topped the group and qualified for the semifinals, which will be played tomorrow. Today is a rest day.

The UAE, who will take on Qatar in the semifinals, were in a dominant mood as they toyed around the Oman defence to score at will.

The scoring act started after the UAE parried away a few Omani raids in the first ten minutes with Mohammed Said opening the account in the 14th minute.

Six minutes later John Adshead-coached hosts suffered another set back when Abdullah Said was on target with a perfect kick.

Leading 2-0, UAE was surprised by a flashy move by the hosts in the first minute of the second half. Oman’s Fuad Abdullah succeeded in breaking the UAE shackles to find the net.

But that was all Oman could do in the match as their persistent raids failed to get past the solid defence put up by the UAE.

In the 54th minute, Mohammed Said widened the lead and just after a minute Hamdan Qassim made it 4-1 for the UAE. As if that was not enough, Khalifa Mohammed struck the fifth goal for the Emirates during the injury time.

In another match, Qatar blanked Iraq 3-0 after a barren first half. In the 40th minute of the second half, Khalfan Ibrahim put Qatar ahead and 15 minutes later Khamis Mohammed made it 2-0. The tally was rounded up in the injury time when Abdullah Alali struck the third goal for Qatar, which helped them to finish second in the group.

In the third match of the day, Iran trounced Lebanon 5-0 to finish on top and set up a semifinal clash against Jordan.