Ashgabat: Yemen champions Al Saqr will face Bahrain’s Al Hidd for a place in the group stage of the AFC Cup after Tawfik Ali’s second-half strike secured a 1-0 win over Turkmenistan counterparts Altyn Asyr in Tuesday’s Preliminary Round.
Ali netted seven minutes after the hour mark for the visitors in front of an 18,000 crowd at Ashgabat Stadium despite the home side dominating for long periods.
And Al Saqr will now travel to the National Stadium in Manama next Tuesday to face Al Hidd, with Iraq’s Al Shorta, Jordan’s Al Jazeera and Palestine’s Taraji Wadi Al Nes awaiting the winner in Group B.
“We are happy with achieving victory. It was very difficult match for us as we didn’t have good preparations for the game,” said Al Saqr coach Mohammed Al Zuraiqi.
“The Yemen championship has stopped and we have not had any match experience recently, but my players showed character and played until the end of the match.
“Altyn Asyr is the best team of Turkmenistan. They created a lot of chances tonight, but our plan gave us the result. We attacked very fast and scored a winning goal.
“We will continue our campaign in a week and we should be prepared for this important match.”
Altyn Asyr made a strong start to the contest with midfielder Myrat Annayev and captain Ahmet Atayev central figures for the home side.
Visitors Al Saqr, though, came close to a breakthrough after 24 minutes as Shaaban Mostafa shot wide from close range following good work from Waleed Al Hubaishi.
Annayev then wasted a brilliant chance for the home side eight minutes later following a mistake from Al Saqr defender Basem Al Aqel, with Atayev and Suleyman Muhadov also passing up opportunities for Altyn Asyr at the end of the first half.
And the hosts continued to dominate at the start of the second half, but seven minutes after the hour mark, Al Saqr took the lead as captain Akram Al Wrafi played in Ali from the centre of the field and the striker fired past goalkeeper Mamed Orazmuhamedov.
Altyn Asyr’s dominance continued after conceding, but with Al Saqr standing firm in defence, the home side were unable to find a response in the closing stages.
“Unfortunately, we couldn`t give happiness to our fans,” said Altyn Asyr coach Dmitriy Korj.
“We had a lot of moments, but we couldn`t score. We gave our best, but if you don`t score, you can`t win a match. We missed so many chances.
“Al Saqr played from defence and they scored after a counterattack. We feel tonight’s result is a big pity.”
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