Tashkent: Saudi Arabia became the Asian U-23 champion on Sunday after beating host Uzbekistan 2-0 in Tashkent. This is due to the wonderful late strikes of Ahmad Al Gamdi and Fillers Al Brycan. This is the first time the young Green Falcons have won the AFC U-23 Asian Cup after their final defeats in 2013 and 2020, and it is also Saad Archeri’s first major continental trophy, two in his career. I lost the continental final. ..
Al Ghamdi gave Saudi Arabia a lead early in the second half and made an award-winning strike. Al Brycan added another impressive second as well, with 16 minutes remaining. The size of the Uzbekistan task was clear as five teams had to do what they failed this month, as the team’s defense couldn’t recognize a single goal at any point in the tournament. Yelled at by 34,000 fans at Millie Stadium, the blue guys did their best, but couldn’t find a way to get past goalkeeper Nawahua Aquidi.
The last few minutes were, of course, desperate, but the opening round was like a cage where Saudi Arabia held the ball firmly and Uzbekistan was about to move forward as soon as it picked it up. The first half was the midpoint before the danger of the goal came out. It was Saudi Arabia that was approaching. Hamad Al Ghamdi in the area reached the left byline and pulled the ball back towards Al Ghamdi, but the striker’s low shot from close range was successfully blocked by Alibec Dabronov.
The host, whose fans filled the stadium two hours before the kick-off, got the first clear chance 32 minutes later. Hojimat Erginov ran into the through ball, but from the edge of the area, only the goalkeeper shot high and wide to win. After a while, Hamad al-Yami fired a powerful shot from 25 meters and goalkeeper Vladimir Nazarov scrambled to the left to keep the ball away from the corner.
Then, seven minutes before the break, Al Ghamdi was bundled with Dabranov in the area, and the referee pointed to the place. The VAR looked good, and after waiting for 5 minutes, it was determined that there was a slight offside in the buildup. Tashkent’s temperature rose in that episode, but the Saudis took almost the lead in the final action of the first half. The long ball from the inside of the half was returned to Aimanyahiya by Albrican. Aimanyahiya’s loop header was scrambled by the goalkeeper from anyone’s land and hit the outside of the post.
Only three minutes later, Saudi Arabia took the lead in an amazing way. Al-Yami found Al-Ghamdi at the edge of the area, but the 20-year-old player still had something to do. The Etifak man distracted the two defenders and fired an unstoppable left foot shot toward the upper corner.
Uzbekistan, of course, was eager to regain leveling as soon as possible, and although its bragging defense was solid, it began to further boost Saudi Arabia around the time. With a heart in his mouth, Central Asian Jasulbek Jaloridinov almost repeated a spectacular semi-final strike with Japan, but his long range shooting just crossed the bar.
With 20 minutes remaining, the host had the ball on the net. Jaroli Dodinov sent Ruslambek Jyanov to the goal and a low shot across Al Aquidi from the right defeated the goalkeeper, but the forward received the ball in a clear offside position. It was 2-0 soon after. Uzbekistan left a gap behind, but Saudi Arabia couldn’t take advantage of it until Albrikan scored another memorable goal. The striker was outside the box on the left, past Nazarov’s desperate dive and shooting a deadly shot into the far corner.
It blew the wind off the host’s sails and there was no way to return to the increasingly frustrated 2018 champion. Uzbekistan felt that their opponents were a waste of time, so there was a big bust up towards the end, with lots of pushes and even a few water bottles thrown from the stand to the pitch. -agency
