Al Shorta beat Al Qadsia 1-0

Substitute Maher Al Sayed converted a late penalty as Syrian champions Al Shorta claimed a 1-0 victory over Kuwaiti double winners Al Qadsia in their AFC Cup Group D opener on Wednesday.

Both teams looked set to share the spoils at the Mohammed Al Hamad Stadium until Qussai Habib was chopped down in the box by defender Mohammad Al Fahad in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

Al Sayed stepped up and confidently fired the ball past goalkeeper Ahmed Al Fadhli to give the visitors the three points, which put them in a tie with Al Ramtha of Jordan, who beat Ravshan 1-0 in Tajikistan earlier in the day, for top spot in the group.

Al Qadsia, the 2010 AFC Cup runners-up, were left to rue a couple of missed opportunities by captain Bader Al Motawaa, who saw one effort brilliantly stopped by Al Shorta goalkeeper Ibrahim Alma and another graze the top of the crossbar.

The two teams had chances to break the deadlock in a lively opening to the game.

Al Shorta’s best early opportunity arrived in the 15th minute when Gilson (Gilson Tussi Junior) played an excellent defence-splitting through ball to Ali Ghalioum who found himself with only the goalkeeper to beat on the left of the Al Qadsia box but slipped his attempt just wide of the far post.

An excellent move by the home side nearly carved open the Al Shorta defence soon afterwards. The ball was lofted to Saif Al Hashan on the right flank and he controlled it quickly before he chipped it to the far post where Omar Al Suma met the ball on the volley with his outstretched boot but saw his effort come back off the right post.

Al Qadsia gradually took control of the contest but they lacked any real penetration until the 77th minute when an acrobatic scissors kick by Al Motawaa was superbly tipped aside by Alma.

Shortly afterwards, Hamad Aman brought the ball in from the right and cut it back from the byline to Al Motawaa whose rising shot on the turn grazed the top of the crossbar.

Those misses would prove costly when the visitors were awarded a spot kick deep into added time after Habib, in trying to create space for a shot in the Al Qadsia box, was unceremoniously sent tumbling by the outstretched leg of Al Fahad.

Al Sayed duly dispatched the spot kick to give the Syrian side the three points, much to the delight of their coach, Mohamad Al Shaded.

“This is a great win for us as we were playing outside our home country and we didn’t prepare very well for this competition,” he said. “I’m so happy for the players who played well tonight and managed to get the three points.

 “We made some changes at half-time and we introduced some new players who changed the game for us. Our players knew how to deal with the situation in the game and they followed our instructions to get an important victory.”

Meanwhile, Al Qadsia coach Mohammad Ebrahim was trying to come to turns with the late loss.

“It was a disappointing defeat as it came in the last minutes of the game,” he said. “We put in a good performance tonight but we missed several chances and Al Shorta’s goalkeeper had a good game and denied us on several occasions.

“Our performance in the second half improved as we created many chances but our players failed to score. We conceded a late goal and this is football. We will try our best to get a better result in our next matches.”