The Hindu : Sport / Football : AFC Cup: Mahindra to meet Al Nejmeh

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Friday, Jun 15, 2007
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AFC Cup: Mahindra to meet Al Nejmeh

New Delhi: Mahindra United will take on Lebanon's Al Nejmeh in the AFC Cup football quarterfinals to be played over two legs in September.

Mahindra, only the second Indian team to make it to the last eight of the continental competition after East Bengal in 2004, will host the Lebanese team on September 18 before playing the away game a week later, according to the knock-out stage draw made in Kuala Lumpur. Defending champion, Al Faisaly of Jordan faces Tampines Rovers of Singapore in the quarterfinals.

Jordan's Shabab Al Ordun and Singapore Armed Forces will fight out another last eight match-up, while Al Wihdat (Jordan) will take on Sun Hei of Hong Kong.

If Mahindra makes it to the last four, it will meet either Shabab Al Ordun or Singapore Armed Forces in the semifinals on October 2 and 23.

Derrick Pereira's team had beaten Singapore Armed Forces 2-0 in an away match in the group stage, but had lost by a solitary goal in its home match in Goa.

The final will be played over two legs on November 2 and 9.

A setback

Nejmeh has suffered a bitter setback when two of its key players were killed in a bomb blast, which rocked Beirut on Wednesday, killing 10 people.

Defender Hussein Dokmak, 25, and playmaker Hussein Neim, 20, were driving back home after a friendly game when the blast ripped through their car. Both were killed on the spot.

Dokmak played for the first team, while Neim was promoted in the beginning of the season from the youth to the first team. — PTI

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