Safa 0-1 Al Hilal: Al Selwi strike sinks Safa
The Source: www.the-afc.com - 22/04/2009
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Akram Al Selwi scored the only goal of the game
as Safa’s perfect record in Group B of the AFC Cup came to a crash halt at the hands of Yemen’s Al Hilal on Tuesday.Al Selwi struck in the 15th minute against the group leaders to reignite Al Hilal’s hopes of progressing to the last 16 as the Lebanese side missed out on the opportunity to guarantee their place in the knockout phase.Safa remain on nine points from four games while Al Hilal are now just three points behind with only two matches remaining in the group phase of the competition.Al Selwi gave his side the lead early in the game, but not before the home team had squandered a goal scoring opportunity of their own when Mohammad Kassas sent his shot wide in the 12th minute. Three minutes later, the Lebanese were left to rue that miss when a defensive error gave Al Selwi the time and space to fire his shot beyond home goalkeeper Nazih Tay. Despite controlling the proceedings in the first half, Safa were unable to find a way back into the game prior to the interval with Mohamad Korhani going closest when he headed just wide of the post. It took until the 62nd minute for Safa to make any further headway against the Al Hilal defence, only for goalkeeper Salem AWadh to keep out Kassas’ header. Thirteen minutes later Kassas was again denied, this time seeing his effort cleared for a corner after good work by Khodr Salame and Rony Azar while just seconds later, Kassas was again marginally off target.
With 12 minutes to go, Amer Khan’s free kick was headed over the bar by Azar as the home side’s frustrations continued and Al Hilal almost doubled their advantage in the final minute only for Berhanu Kasim to fire wide after a rapid counterattack.
The sheen was taken off Al Hilal’s win in injury time, however, when Salem Saeed was sent off for an off-the-ball incident, but it was not enough to deny the Yemeni side the three points
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