The Hindu : Sport / Football : Dempo SC suffers fourth defeat

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Thursday, May 12, 2005

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Dempo SC suffers fourth defeat

Maatouk nets Al-Ahed's winner

MARGAO: Substitute Hassan Maatouk scored in the second-half as Lebanese club Al-Ahed defeated Dempo Sports Club 1-0 in a Group `B' match of the AFC Cup at the Nehru Stadium here on Wednesday.

Al-Ahed, which enjoyed territorial advantage throughout the match, scored the all-important goal in the 72nd minute when Maatouk got the better of defender Raju Singh inside the box and beat goalkeeper Abhijit Mondal from an acute angle.

Al-Ahed utilised the flanks well with long passes and could have won the return match by a bigger margin had they utilised the three clear chances that came its way.

On the other hand, Al-Ahed goalkeeper Bilal Hachem's brilliant show under the bar denied Ranty Martins and Clifford from scoring.

The win took Al-Ahed's tally to six points from three matches and has brightened its chances of qualifying for the next round as the second best team with a match in hand against table leader Al Hussein, which has nine points from three wins.

Dempo, which lost to Al-Ahed in the away match through a controversial goal, was at the bottom of the table losing all the four matches.

Al-Ahed had the first chance to score in the 12th minute but Youssef Salman's header off Kobeissi Riad free kick hit the post and off the rebound Issam Ayoub shot straight to 'keeper Mondal's hands. With three minutes left for the break, Al-Ahed's Issam Ayoub wasted an open chance when he failed to tap in a measured cross by hard working Youseef Salman.

Referee Ram Krishna Gosh of Bangladesh showed yellow cards to Dempo's Raju Singh, Ranty Martins and Kasun Jayasuriya. — PTI

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