Panaji, Apr 5: Jordan's Al Wehdat thrashed Salgaocar 5-0 in group ‘D' league match of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup 2012, in Amman yesterday.
A penalty by Abdallah Deeb opened the scoring midway through the first half of the match, played last evening at King Abdullah international stadium in Amman, before Ahmad Elias doubled the advantage at the start of the second half.
Issa Al Sapah, Mahmoud Shelbaieh and Amer Abuhwaiti consolidated the lead as the team secured comfortable win.
“The win gives us our spirit back especially because we also pulled out a good performance. It was a good win after bad performances in the league and the team put on a good show,” said Al Wehdat coach Branko Smiljanic, who takes his side to India for the return fixture next week.
“We made some changes recently in the tactics and it paid off. We still respect our opponents despite the big win. We will be looking to qualifying to the next level and hopefully we can carry on performing like this,” Branko stated.
“I didn't expect this performance from Al Wehdat following their recent matches. They were organised and created huge problems for us. They deserved to win,” said Salgaocar coach Karim Bencheifa.
“We had some problems in the attacking line as our players are not tall enough to follow crosses. Al Wehdat has experience and they have good players and I take responsibility for the defeat,” he said.
After three rounds, Neftchi is heading the table with 7 points followed by Al Wehdat with six points, Al Arouba with three and Salgaocar at the bottom with one point. Salgaocar will play Al Wehdat on April 10 at Nehru Stadium, Fatorda.
