Saudi Arabia thrashes Sri Lanka 7/0

Published : 12:41 pm  July 1, 2012 |  No comments so far  |     |   (3)  |  

Saudi Arabia and Syria easily qualified through to the final by downing Sri Lanka 7-0 and Pakistan 4-0 respectively in their AFC U-22 Championship 2013 qualifying B Group matches played in Riyadh on Saturday. Both the Saudis and Syrians have gained a perfect 12 points apiece from four matches but a three-goal difference places, the former team as the group leaders.

Sri Lankans should be blamed for this loss as they gave away two penalties to the opponents. Saudi striker Mohammed Yahya Majrashi opened the scoring as early as the 8th minute before completing his hat-trick through a penalty after 56 minutes and another penalty in the 70th minute.

Midfielder Salem Mohammed Aldawsari scored in the 25th minute followed by Saleh Khalid Alsehri (36th) which gave the hosts a 3-0 lead in the first half. Alsehri scored his second goal in the 74th minute and defender Abdullah Ibrahim Otayf made it 7-nil for Saudi Arabia a couple of minutes before the final whistle.

In the other match, Syria scored an easy four goals to nil victory over Pakistan and the third match in the group, Palestine shared the spoils with Kyrgyzstan when they drew 0-0. With Kyrgyzstanis having accumulated four points from four matches they are third in the table while the Palestinians are fourth with two points. Sri Lanka is lying in the fifth place with 2 points and Pakistan is at the bottom with a point. The last round of league matches will take place on July 3.

- By Tony Mike