Doha (DPA)
The Saudi team was bid farewell to the Arab Football Cup after losing 1-0 to the Moroccan team, during the match that brought them together today, Tuesday, in the third and final round of Group C competitions.
The Moroccan team owes this victory to Karim El Berkaoui, who scored the game’s only goal from a penalty kick in the fourth minute of overtime for the first half.
The Saudi team completed the match with ten players, after Ali Majrashi was sent off in the 79th minute.
The Moroccan team raised its score to nine points at the top of the standings, while the balance of the Saudi team stopped at one point in third place.
The Moroccan team qualified for the quarter-finals of the last round as the first group, and was accompanied by the Jordanian team, which defeated its Palestinian counterpart 5-1 in the match that was held today at the same time.
The start of the match came at a medium level, and the Moroccan team quickly imposed its control over the course of the meeting, but failed to pose any danger to the Saudi team’s goal, which put early pressure on the Moroccan team players and did not give them the opportunity to launch attacks.
The first dangerous attempts on the two goals came to the Saudi team in the sixth minute, when the ball reached Turki Marwan Al-Ammar inside the penalty area from the left side, to hit a powerful ball that was brilliantly blocked by Ali Mohamed, the Moroccan goalkeeper.
In the 12th minute, the Moroccan team almost opened the scoring, when the ball reached Sofiane Rahimi inside the penalty area of the Saudi team from the left side, to hit a powerful ground ball, but his ball hit the right post of goalkeeper Zaid Al Bawardi before going out for a goal kick.
After that attack, the two teams continued their attempts to control the midfield to take it as a base to launch attacks.
Play remained confined to the center of the field until the 32nd minute, which witnessed a dangerous opportunity for the Moroccan team when the ball was prepared in front of Idris Ftouhi on the borders of the Saudi team’s penalty area, to hit a powerful ball that was brilliantly blocked by Al Bawardi.
In the second minute of overtime, the referee awarded a partial kick to the Moroccan team, after Zaid Al-Bawardi blocked Karim El-Barkawi inside the penalty area. Morocco with a clean goal.
With the beginning of the second half, the Moroccan team intensified its offensive attempts in search of a second goal to secure its progress. On the other hand, the Saudi team retreated to its midfield to absorb the enthusiasm of the opposing team’s players, while relying on counter-attacks.
Despite the successive attempts of the Moroccan team, it failed to penetrate the defense of the Saudi team, limiting the play to the midfield.
Over time, the Saudi team began to enter the atmosphere of the offensive match, and the Moroccan team exchanged attacks in search of scoring the equalizing goal, but both teams failed to pose any danger to the other’s goal.
The Saudi team suffered a painful blow in the 79th minute, after Ali Majrashi was expelled after a violent intervention with Moroccan player Sofiane Rahimi.
The Moroccan team tried to take advantage of the numerical shortage in the Saudi team to score a second goal, but it collided with a strong and organized defense of the Saudi team players.
Play remained confined to the center of the field until the first minute of stoppage time for the match, which almost witnessed the Moroccan team scoring the second goal, when Ashraf Dari took a corner kick and met it with an elaborate header, but his ball hit the left post.
The remaining time passed without anything new before the referee blew the whistle at the end of the match, with the Moroccan team winning 1-0.
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