FOOTBALL – Saudi Arabia made a dramatic late comeback to steal a 2-1 victory over Oman in their opening Group F game of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup at the Khalifa International Stadium in Al Rayyan, Qatar, last night.
Oman took the lead in the 14th minute through Salah Al Yahyaei who easily converted a penalty – awarded after Saudi Arabia’s Hassan Tambakti brought Mushen Al Ghassani down in the box – by tricking goalkeeper Ahmed Al Kassar into diving in the wrong direction.
Saudi Arabia had two opportunities to equalise later in the first half but Sami Al Naji and Saud Abdulhamid failed to capitalise on them.
Both teams missed chances to score in the first 30 minutes of the second half before Saudi coach Roberto Mancini brought in Al Nassr’s Abdulrahman Ghareeb off the bench in the 75th minute and the move immediately paid dividends three minutes later with the winger dodging past three defenders to score the equaliser.
As the game ticked past the 90 minutes of regulation time, Ghareeb was in action again as he sent a cross to Ali Lajami who passed the ball on to centre-back Ali Al Bulayhi who sent it into the back of the net with a diving header.
The goal was initially disallowed but then awarded after a VAR review established that Al Bulayhi wasn’t offside.
Meanwhile, in the other Group F game yesterday, Thailand’s Supachai Chaided scored a brace as Thailand beat Kyrgyzstan, 2-0, at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha.
Having missed two earlier chances to go ahead, Thailand finally took the lead in the 26th minute with Supachai pouncing on a palmed save by Kyrgyzstan goalkeeper Erzhan Tokotaev, off a curling shot by Bordin Phala, to slot the ball home easily.
Thailand went 2-0 up shortly after the break when a cross from Nicholas Michelson hit Tamirlan Kozubaev in the back, allowing Supachai to tap it in for his second goal of the night.
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