Historic triumph for Seeb as they storm into AFC Cup final

Muscat: Oman football fans erupted in joy as Muscat-based Seeb Club wrote a historic chapter in club football history of the Sultanate as they booked a place in the final of the 2022 AFC Cup on Tuesday. This is the first time that any Omani club has reached the final of AFC Cup, a continental competition.

Cheered by a large crowd of home fans, Seeb routed Bahrain’s Al Riffa Club 4-0 at the Seeb Sports Stadium.

Seeb will meet the winner of the other zonal final between PFC Sogdiana and Kuala Lumpur City FC at the Sogdiana Sporting Complex in Jizzakh, Uzbekistan. The AFC Cup final will be played on October 22.

Both the teams failed to break the deadlock but a splendid second half performance saw the hosts record a convincing win. The hosts broke the stalemate with a strike soon after the resumption.

Led by newly-appointed coach Rasheed Jaber, a former national team coach and winner of many domestic titles, Seeb drew the first blood two minutes into the second half when experienced striker Abdulaziz al Miqbali found the back of the net beating Al Riffa’s Abdulkarim Al Fardan, who had a busy night.

Al Riffa thought they had equalised when Hazza Ali supplied a sublime through pass for Mohammed Al Romaihi, who beat the Omani goalkeeper Ahmed al Rawahi with a lobbed attempt, but he could not direct his finish toward goal and it passed wide.

The opening goal spurred the hosts as they went for the kill and the introduction of Ahmed al Siyabi turned out to be a successful one. A minute after Siyabi replaced an injured Mohammed al Habsi, he scored the team’s second goal. Al Muqbali turned from scorer to provider, latching onto a long ball and outmuscling his marker before squaring for Siyabi to sweep home the second.

Talented Salah al Yahyaei seemed to have got the victory sealed with a calm finish in the dying minutes as Ali al Busaidi sent a defence-splitting pass down the left.

Substitute Cosmos Dauda put the cherry on the cake to spark massive celebrations with the fourth goal of the night to complete the rout in added time. The Ghanaian forward found space inside the box and powered home a diving header past Al Fardan to sign off on the victory.

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