Courtesy: The AFC.com


Ardus, Al Rayyan top Zone 1

Saturday, 24 March 2012

Tashkent: Al Rayyan of Qatar booked a place in the finals of the Asian Futsal Club Championship 2012 in style by beating UAE’s Al Wasl 6-4 in a thrilling match on Friday to join Uzbek giants Ardus from from qualification Zone 1.

Ardus also ensured a consecutive appearance in the finals after they demolished Al Karkh of Iraq 9-2 later to join last year’s semi-finalists Al Rayyan in July's finals.

Both sides booked their tickets to Kuwait with one match to spare which made Saturday’s top-of-the-table tie against these two sides an academic contest. Ardus leads the table with nine points from three matches while Al Rayyan has managed seven points from three matches and must beat Ardus to emerge as the winner of the group.

Saad Bilal and Antonio Jesus Sanchez scored double while Hoshi Shota and Ahmed Raja scored a goal apiece for the Qatari club. Al Wasl did everything to win the crucial tie but despite a brace from Jasem Soltani and late goals from Abdulkarim Jamil, tournament’s leading goal scorer, and Hezam Sabry failed to produce anything from the match.

Dilshod Irsaleiv notched a hat-trick in Ardus’ comfortable victory over Al Karkh, who alongside Ardus were eliminated from the Group Stage in 2011 Asian Futsal Club Championship finals. Irsaleiv’s brilliance over-shadowed bracse from Dilshod Rakhmatov and Jamoliddin Sharipov . Also registering their names on the scoresheet were Nodir Elibaev and Shakhzod Buriev .

Ardus and Al Rayyan from Zone 1 and Thai Son Nam and GH Bank RBAC from the Zone 2 will join the league winners of host nation Kuwait as well as the national champions of Japan, Iran and Lebanon - whose club sides occupied the top three positions at the 2011 AFC Futsal Club Championship.




Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com