Doha: Defending champions El Jaish and Lekhwiya - both of Qatar - stormed into the semi-finals of the 17th Asian Clubs League Championship after registering their third successive wins here yesterday.
Group A leaders Lekhwiya continued their march defeating Al Qurain Sporting Club of Kuwait, securing their third victory in as many encounter at Ali bin Hamad Al-Attiyah Arena at Al Sadd here yesterday.
Led by a sheer unstoppable shooter Bagaric with seven goals the Kuwaiti only managed to level the game for ten minutes in the middle of first half, when they switched to their infamous man-marking defense.
For ten minutes no goal was scored at all, a curiosity for handball.
But after that Lekhwiya regained full control of the game and marched to a 27-21 victory.
“Our seven-goal victory is a great result. The team spirit was fantastic. In defence we fought bravely for the whole 60 minutes. We made a couple of mistakes, especially against their tricky defence systems, but did all right in the end. It was our target from the beginning to finish first in the group. Today before the match we knew, that we could win the group with a victory, which we did, perfect,” said Frantisek Sulc of Lekhwiya.
The semi-final stage will be a completely different affair from the preliminary group stage matches Sulc said.
“Now it is like a whole new tournament starting for us. We only have two more games, and everything is possible - a great feeling.”
With yesterday’s two points Lekhwiya secured first place in the group, and will meet second placed team from Group B in the first semi-final on Saturday.
A second Qatari club El Jaish secured a first place and a semi-final berth after they comfortably beat Group B bottom-placed team Ahli Sadab 37-19.
The defending champions were always in control of the game and were never threatened by the Omani team, which is still in search for their first points in the tournament.
The third Qatari club in action yesterday Al Gharafa was not so lucky losing to Samenalhojaj of Iran 26-23.
The day’s first game needed a long warm-up phase with mistakes on both sides to then become one of the most exciting ones of the tournament so far.
After a 10-9 half time score Al Gharafa put themselves in a comfortable seven-goal lead within only seven minutes.
The game seemed decided when Iranians Samenalhojaj – powered by a red card against their opponents – all of a sudden geared up. Iranian right winger Masaeli rose to become man of the game as he managed to score 8 very important of his 10 goals in Samenalhojaj’s hunt for the equaliser.
Four minutes before the end the equaliser was there, and in the hectic finishing minutes the Iranians secured their 26-23 victory over the local side.
With Lekhwiya having already qualified from Group A the semi-final qualification race is now between Al Gharafa and Al Qurain.
Al Gharafa, who has a 1-1-1 record can still qualify for the semi-finals, if they win their last match today against already qualified Lekhwiya.
A positive result for Al Gharafa will see Al Qurain losing the semi-final race to the local club.
Joining the two local clubs in the semi-finals was Al Kuwait Club. The Kuwaiti club defeated Manyazium Ferdows Club 35-25 to become the first team to qualify from Group B.
The Peninsula
