IKOLI VICTOR

DOHA AL ARABI’S campaign in the AFC Champions League came to a premature end at home after its 1-0 loss to Pakhtakor of Uzbekistan on Tuesday.

The Qatari team entered the Group B fixture knowing that a fourth straight defeat will automatically eliminate it from progressing to the knock-out stage of the competition.

That was to happen as the home team failed to click all through the 90 minutes squandering a number of chances in the opening half.

Arabi is pointless after four games and has two matches more to play. Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia stays on the top with ten points after a stalemate with Baniyas of the UAE, which has 5 points while Pakhtakor moves to second with 7 points.

Qatar’s other representative Gharafa playing far away in Iran scored a stoppage time equaliser against Piroozi Athletic to keep its hopes alive in Group D
Pakhtakor’s performance was brilliant and its victory would have been much bigger if Abdukholiqov Temurkhuja’s strike in the 41st minute had not been stopped by crossbar.

Khashimov Davronbek was also denied a goal by the crossbar.

Abdukholiqov was , however, gifted with the goal after goalkeeper Rajab Hamza had stopped Klichev Oybek’s goal-bound move but allowed the ball to spill out of his hand. The striker controlled the ball and calmly placed it into an empty net, with Seyed Hadi Aghily flatfooted on the ground.

Before Pakhtakor’s goal, Arabi created two openings for goal in the first ten minutes with Boualem Khouki and Djako Arafat coming close.

Another opportunity was to come in the 16th minute with Djako and Pisculich combing but it was Pakhtakor goalkeeper Juraev Temur that made a save off Djako’s effort.

With Arabi failing to take full charge of the game, a barrage of Pakhtakor attacks resulted that almost yielded a goal when Abdukholiqov’s header flew close to the far left of the Arabi goal in the 35th minute.

Abdukhoviqov’s fierece shot from the edge of the box clearly beat Rajab but for the woodwork in the 37th minute. The diminutive striker continued to terrorise the Arabi defence and his persistence paid off in the 41st minute with a calm finish from inside the box. That ended the proceedings in opening half, but there were two yellow cards, one for Arabi’s Abdulla Maarafiya in the 22nd minute and Pakhtakor’s Dilshod Sharofetdinov in the 40th minute.

Pakhtakor started the second with more power, pace and flair to their game as Sharofetdinov’s header in the 54th minute almost resulted into a second goal, with goalkeeper Rajab completely beaten and the ball sailing just inches away.

It was one chance after the other for Pakhtakor. Karimov almost scored but for the timely clearance of Abdulla Hassan on the hour mark.

The pressure on Arabi became so much that Khashimov’s curling effort from the inside the box hit the top right side of the bar in the 66th minute.

Hapless Arabi coach Pierre Lechantre introduced Abdulaziz Sulaity to replace Djako who was quiet in the second half until his substitution in the 70th minute.

The enterprising Pakhtakor midfielder was shown the red card after receiving his second yellow card on a foul on Pisculichi with 25 minutes still remaining.

Pakhtakor utilised all its three substitution including goalsorer Abdukholiqov.

Arabi had its last chance from Argentinian Pisculichi but his shot was well covered by Juraev Temur though the ball was wide in added time.