The Lebanese futsal team came in second place in the second group in the first round of the Fourth West Asian Men’s Futsal Championship 2022 held in Kuwait until June 13, following a 3-3 draw and its Omani counterpart, which led to a tie between the two teams with their Bahraini counterpart by five points.
In this case, the tournament system stipulates that the results of the team that comes last, i.e. the UAE, who had lost their third match in a row once morest Bahrain, 2-7, be crossed out.
In front of the stands decorated with the presence of the Lebanese public and encouraged throughout its minutes before celebrating the qualification, breaths were held in an unprecedented manner amid the complete control of the Cedars men. The team fought it determined to win to ensure the top of the second group and qualify for the semi-finals.
Contrary to the course of the match, the Omani team opened the scoring by Zamil Al Balushi, but the Lebanese team continued its pressure and organized its ranks until it equalized by Ali Hashem from a free kick, scoring his second goal in the tournament.
The Omanis regained the lead following a defensive miscalculation with the implementation of an attack that required goalkeeper Hussain Hamdani to go out of his line, so Muhammad Al-Shibli snatched the ball and deposited the ball into the net.
Once once more, the power player’s plan had the final word, as its incumbent, Hassan Zeitoun, managed to score the equalizer before entering the dressing room for a break between the two halves.
In the second half, the Lebanese team was determined to win, and its players missed a huge number of opportunities due to selfishness, lack of focus, haste and haste to win until Ahmed Khair El-Din led a counterattack and exchanged the ball with Mohamed Hammoud to score the goal of progress.
The Cedars men were able to consolidate their advance more than once, but they strayed from the net until the Omani side decided to adopt the Power Player plan, and the defense and the Lebanese guard confronted them valiantly.
For the third match in a row, the Lebanese team conceded due to an arbitration error, as the Lebanese team deserved a penalty kick from a distance of 10 meters following “Foul” is the sixth in favor of Khair El-Din, before Mutasem Al Shamsi scored the equalizing goal two seconds before the end.
In the first semi-final, Lebanon will play Kuwait at 16:00 in the followingnoon of Saturday, June 11, while the second semi-final will meet Oman with Saudi Arabia at 19:30 in the evening.
