Al Jazeera – Hammud al-Mutari:
Our Olympic Greens won the 2022 AFC Under-23 Cup for the first time in their history after beating hosts Uzbekistan 2-0 in Sunday’s final at the Bunyodkor Stadium in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan.
The two winning goals were scored by Al-Akhdar Ahmed Al-Ghamdi d.48 and Firas al-Brikan d.74, and our team achieved its first continental title in the fifth edition of the tournament, after losing the final twice in 2013. did. and the 2020 edition.
The match began with clear caution on the part of both teams, until the 24th minute, which saw Al-Akhdar attack, when Ayman Yahya played a cross pass from the right, causing a door to the goal. The ball reached past Firas al-Braikan to make an effort that hit the defenders and turned into a corner kick.
On the other hand, Uzbekistan’s first shot was made by Hussein Nurchayev from a distance in the 29th minute, but the ball was easy in the hands of goalkeeper Nawaf al-Akidi.
Then Uzbekistan’s most prominent opportunity was lost when Ulugbek Hashimov sent a pass to Hojimat Arkanov to hit the ball from a narrow angle behind defenders, but the bar passed over d.32.
The video assistant referee intervened in the 43rd minute by canceling a penalty kick that the referee had given to our team because of an intrusion at the start of the attack. In the lost time of the first half, Ayman Yahya played a surprise header in the direction of the empty Uzbek goal after moving his goalkeeper, who managed to push it to a corner kick to end the first half negative.
In the second half, our team started strongly and scored their first goal after a quick attack in the 48th minute, through which Hamad Al-Yami fired a powerful and accurate shot to Ahmed Al-Ghamdi over the arc of the penalty area. To pass the ball. Uzbek with your left in the top corner of the goal.
After this goal, the Uzbekistan team tried to press for a change in the result, but our team managed to close their previous areas and rely on quick counter-attacks.
The most prominent Uzbek opportunity was via a shot from Jalal Aldinov from afar, which passed over the crossbar in the 63rd, then substitute Ruslanbek Gianov scored a goal that was canceled due to an intrusion, before al-Akhdar made a quick After the counterattack managed to add the second goal. Substitute Turkey by Al-Ammar, who went to Al-Braikan to advance. He made a precise shot into the far corner of the Uzbek goalkeeper’s 74th goal.
Despite the Uzbekistan team’s efforts to bounce back with results in the remaining minutes, the Greens were crowned with the continental title.
Al-Akhdar achieved remarkable numbers in this tournament after winning the title without losing any of their matches and with a historic number of clean sheets that had not been achieved before.