Afif double helps Qatar beat Iraq in friendly

Doha: Qatar defeated hosts Iraq 3-2 in an exciting opening match of the friendly tournament in Basra on Wednesday.

In the match played at Basra Sport City Stadium, Akram Afif opened the scoring for Qatar with a beautiful finish in the 17th minute.

Karim Boudiaf started the move through the middle and found Al Moez Ali, who in turn passed the ball to Afif in space on the left. The Qatari forward drew Iraqi goalkeeper Mohammed Hameed towards him beat him all ends up with a deft left-footer.

Afif soon had a chance to double the lead but his shot off another pass from Almoez hit the side netting.

Qatar were made rue their miss as Iraq equalised not long after. Qatar’s offside trap failed miserably and Ahmed Yassin turned in Brwa Nouri’s cross from the right in the 31st minute to make it 1-1.

However, Afif handed back the advantage to Qatar with a stunner in the first half added time.

A deft layoff from Almoez helped Afif break through the middle and though he had two of his team-mates on the right, he opted to shoot from outside the box and it turned out to be a stinger.

Iraq had chances to equalise at the start of the second period, but it was Qatar who scored again, in the 63rd minute.

Again it was a flowing passage of play, the ball moving from Afif to Almoez on the left to captain Hassan Al Haidous on the right.

By the time Al Haidous crossed from the right byline, Iraqi defence was in tatters and Ismael Mohammed was left with a tap-in on the goal line.

Iraq hit back in no time as a long clearance from keeper Hameed caught out Qatari defence. Muhanad Ali was left one on one with Saad Al Sheeb and though the Qatari goalkeeper managed to stick his foot out it only wrong-footed the back frantically-backtracking Bassam Hisham who stopped the ball with his hands.

Luckily for Qatar, Hussein Ali blasted the rebound home as it could easily have been a red card for Bassam and a penalty for Iraq.

Even though both teams had chances, the score remained the same.

Qatar take on Syria in the next match on Saturday.