Matches of zonal final of the Asian Football Confederation Cup, during which “Altyn Asyr” Club from Ashgabat met with April 25 from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The match resulted in advantageous 2:2 score for Turkmen team.
The match was hard our team had to catch up with the score two times, however, it managed to play back both times, having provided itself with good positions before the rematch.
The opponents came to the match without any lost. “Altyn Asyr” had 6 wins and 2 draws in this round of the AFC Cup.The team from the DPRK hold the record, having won all matches, and literally crushed the team from Singapore with 11:1 score.
From the first minutes of the match, the hosts took over the initiative.Our players managed to withstand the attacks of the opponents but on the 15th minutes missed the best goal scorer of this tournament of the AFC Cup.
However, Korean players did not enjoyed the success for long.After 5 minutes, Turkmen players played back the goal owing to the efforts Vahit Orazsakhedov, who already scores the goal in the third game in the row.
After 5 minutes, the referee from Oman Ahmed Said Al Kaf gave red card to one of the players of Korean team, having left “April 25” to play with ten people. It seemed that this advantage would help “Altyn Asyr” but suddenly, Korean team scored another goal.
Ashgabat team had another half to use the advantage and play back. However, the attacks did not had any luck for a long time. It was either skilful defence of the opponents or our forwards were not accurate enough to score. However, after stubborn fight, our compatriot Selim Nurmyradov has managed to score such long-awaited and necessary goal.
Resultative 2:2 draw stopped record series of “April 25” and the chances of our team in home match for qualification to the final of the Asian Football Confederation Cup have increased owing to two scored goals in away match.
Turkmen fans will wait impatiently for return match in Ashgabat Stadium of the capital on October 3.