Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
West Bank: Palestine and the United Arab Emirates both recorded their second wins of the AFC U-19 Championship qualifiers on Sunday with the Group C hosts defeating Palestine 2-0 and the UAE hammering India 7-0 in a match that saw the South Asians give away three penalty kicks.
Majid Mohammed Al Mehairi netted a hat-trick while three of his team-mates successfully converted from the penalty spot as the UAE continued their impressive start in their campaign to reach next year’s continental youth finals in neighbouring Bahrain with a comprehensive victory over India, who slipped to their second defeat of the qualifiers after going down 1-0 to hosts Palestine in their Group C opener.
The UAE’s first and fourth goals of a dominant first half came from penalties, with Jassim Yaqoob scoring in the 14th minute and skipper Ahmed Rashid successfully converting two minutes into stoppage time.
The converted spot kicks bookended two goals from man-of-the-match Al Mehairi (34th, 45th+1) and the on-form Al Jazira forward would go on to take his tally for the tournament to five in two matches when he completed his hat-trick in the 88th minute with the UAE’s seventh of the contest.
Prior to Al Mehairi bringing the curtain down on the one-sided victory with his third, Khalfan Hassan Al Noobi became the third UAE player to score from the penalty spot when he converted from 12 yards in the 54th minute before substitute Mohamed Rashid made it 6-0 with six minutes left to play.
Like the UAE, Palestine ended Match Day 2 having yet to concede a goal in the qualifiers as the Group B hosts scored twice in the second half to defeat Afghanistan 2-0, with Mohamed Obaid breaking the deadlock five minutes after the interval before substitute Munther Shobaki sealed the win in the 90th minute.
Ten group winners and five best second-placed teams will qualify for the finals while hosts Bahrain received an automatic qualification (total 16 teams).
If Bahrain finish top of their qualifying group or one of the five second best-placed teams, the next (6th) second-placed team will qualify for the final competition.