ShareBy Abdellatif M Sharaa
KUWAIT: The second round of Zain Premier Football League was completed over the weekend. Nasr Football Club met Sahel on Thursday. The match started with Sahel playing exceptionally well and drew first blood 13 minutes into the match by its Algerian player Tarek Aggoun, then Nasr quickly equalized in the 17th minute with a shot by Mohammad Daham. Several attempts were made by both teams in the first half, but Nasr's Nigerian player Dennis Sesugh scored the goal in the 43rd minute.
Both teams gave defense little attention in the second half as both wanted to come out winners and both had chances to score, but failed to materialize them, and it was not until the added time when Nasr's Brazilian player Francisco Torres, made the score 3-1. Al-Nasr now has 4 points in third place while Sahel in eight place with zero points.
Kuwait Football Club entered its match against Tadhamon on Thursday, determined to make up for its first round loss, and succeeded to score their first goal in the second minute of the match by Ahmad Al-Dhafiri. Tadhamon players were not able to threaten Kuwait's goal during most of the first half, then in the 31st minute referee Saud Al-Samhan granted Kuwait a penalty kick which was scored by Tunisian Taha Khenissi in the 31st minute making the score 2-0.
Qadsiya and Fahaheel Sports Club.Tadhamon did not seem to be worried about the result and hardly made any serious attacks against Kuwait, and things became more complicated in the 75th minute when defender Samuel Sarfo from Ghana saw red. The match ended with the score of 2-0. Kuwait, the current league champion, is in sixth place with 3 points, while Tadhamon is in 9th placed and pointless.
On Friday, Qadsiya met Fahaheel and managed to score one goal by Bernard Henry from Cote d'Ivoire in the 30th minute. Qadsiya now tops the table with 6 points, although there are still some doubts about Qadsiya's performance.
Fahaheel on the other hand had a good performance, but it leaned more on defense and this did not help them score any goal, and in fact Qadsiya added a second goal in the 80 minute, which was disallowed after referring to the VAR technology.
The match ended with the score of 1-0 leaving Fahaheel in 10th and last place without a point. The final match of round 2 was between Kazma and Jahra, which saw a dramatic finish. Jahra scored early in the 11th minute of the match by Isaka Abudo Diarra from Ghana.
Kazma, following Jahra's score attemped to score the equalizer making one attack after the other but goal keeper Bader Al-Sanoon heroics kept his net clean. Kazma's Jordanian player Emad Azzi finally had a ball that crossed the goal line in the 90+2 minute giving his team one point by his equalizer. Kazma now is in second place with 4 points and Jahra in 5th with 4 points also.
Third round fixtures:
Thursday 8/9 Salmiya vs Sahel 17:30
Nasr vs Fahaheel 19:50
Friday 9/9 Tadhamon vs Jahra 17:30
Qadsiya vs Kazma 19:50
Saturday 10/9 Kuwait vs Arabi 18:50
Zain Premier Football League Standings:
Rank Team P W T L + - +/- P
- Qadsiya 2 2 0 0 4 2 2 6
- Kazma 2 1 1 0 4 1 3 4
- Nasr 2 1 1 0 4 2 2 4
- Salmiya 2 1 1 0 3 2 1 4
- Jahra 2 1 1 0 2 1 1 4
- Kuwait 2 1 0 1 2 1 1 3
- Arabi 2 0 2 0 3 3 0 2
- Sahel 2 0 0 2 3 6 -3 0
- Tadhamon 2 0 0 2 0 3 -3 0
- Fahaheel 2 0 0 2 0 4 -4 0
Zain Premier Football results of the second round:
Arabi 2, Samiya 2
Sahel 1, Nasr 3
Tadhamon 0, Kuwait 2
Fahaheel 0, Qadsiya 1
Jahra 1, Kazma 1
