AFC
Doha
A ten-man Palestine fought back to force a 2-2 draw with Kuwait in their AFC Asian Qualifiers Group B match at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium on Tuesday.
Yousef Al Sulaiman’s double looked to have secured Kuwait the points but Zeid Qunbar equalised in time added on at the end of the second half for Palestine to take a share of the points.
Kuwait went ahead in the 19th minute after great work from Yosef Al Shammari on the right created the opportunity for Salman Mohammed to back-heel towards goal but Musab Battat got in the way of the attempt.
Kuwait kept pressing and were awarded a spot-kick in the 31st minute after Ameed Mahajneh was brought down by Moaath Al Enezi, with Yousef Al Sulaiman coolly tucking home.
Palestine, however, were awarded a penalty of their own for Ahmad Al Dhefiri’s challenge on Abouli, with the forward dusting himself off to put away the spot-kick in the 41st minute.
Palestine went down to 10 men in the 55th minute after Camilio Saldana was shown a second yellow card.
Despite playing with a man less, Palestine had opportunities to take the lead when Abouli got to the ball ahead of Abdulghafoor only to send his shot wide before Abdulghafoor reacted quickly to deny Dabbagh from close range.
Kuwait eventually capitalised on their numerical advantage to go ahead with 10 minutes left to play when Al Sulaiman nudged home past Palestine custodian Rami Hamada from a delightful Sami Al Sanea cross. But Palestine fought back to snatch a draw when Qunbar nodded in from close range in the third minute of added time to salvage a point for his side.
Next up for Palestine is a meeting against Oman with Kuwait hosting South Korea, both matches to be played on November 14.