Oman rout Nepal to keep AFC U-19 tournament qualifying hopes alive

MUSCAT: Oman kept their hopes of qualifying alive after beating Nepal 5-0 in their final AFC U-19 Championship Group A match at the Dolen Omurzakov Stadium in Kyrgyzstan capital of Bishkek on Wednesday.

Oman needed a win against Nepal to keep their hopes of advancing into the next round as among the best five runners-up.

According to the news posted on the Asian Football Confederation ( AFC) website, Oman opened their account in the 11th minute through captain Faisal Al Harthi via a brilliantly executed free-kick which gave Nepal goalkeeper Sojit no chance. Oman doubled their advantage when Arshad Said Al Alawi scored after a one-on-one opportunity with Sojit in the 32nd minute.

Al Harthi completed his double in first half added-on time, to put Oman 3-0 up at half-time.

In the second half, Oman continued to dominate as they scored two more goals.

Their goals came from Thamir Al Zaabi in the 58th minute and Arshad Al Alawi scored just sec- onds later. In his post-match comments, Oman coach Rasheed Jaber said: “We had many chances to score in this game. It was a good game for us. I think our players need to learn more. It was obvious today when my team had many chances, they were lost and struggled a little bit.

“Overall, I am happy with the results because we are the only team who scored five goals against Nepal..”

“I do not know what is going to happen in the other matches but hopefully, we will have a chance to qualify for Indonesia. Otherwise, we will have to go back and build another team and build this team for the future too,” he added.