Al-Arabi qualified for the semi-finals of the Amir Cup Football Championship 2023, after defeating Muaither 3-1 in the meeting that took place between them today at Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium in the quarter-finals. The Arab goal was scored by Spain’s Rafinha Alcantara and Tunisian Youssef Msakni in the two minutes (12 and 71). Al-Arabi will meet in the next round with the winner of the Al-Sailiya and Al-Duhail match scheduled for the day after tomorrow (Monday).
Muaither started the match, armed with the confidence to reach the current stage, so he was the one who had the offensive initiative at the beginning of the match, threatening Al-Arabi’s goal when the Iraqi Hammam Tariq penetrated and passed more than one defender before hitting a powerful ball just over the crossbar in the sixth minute, sending an early warning to Al-Arabi, who responded quickly through an organized attack. The ball reached Ibrahim Kalla, who faced the goal and hit a powerful ball, which was removed by goalkeeper Moayad Shannan in the tenth minute.
Al-Arabi resumed his attack again, so Hamed Ismail stormed the penalty area to win a corner kick that he executed himself, to reach the Syrian Omar Al-Soma, who in turn prepared it for the Spaniard Ravina Alcantara to put it in the net, scoring the first goal in the 12th minute, while the Tunisian Youssef Msakni almost strengthened the score after only two minutes when he hit a powerful ball. It passed by in the 14th minute.
And at a time when Al-Arabi believed that he had paved the way for victory with the early goal, Muaither showed a strong reaction to the delay, when he exerted great pressure on goalkeeper Jassim Al-Hail, who saved his team from an accomplished goal when he cleared Aladdin Agray’s solo ball into the goal in the 21st minute, while Jamal Hamad’s shot went over the crossbar a little in the 24th minute. In light of the numerical increase imposed by Muaither in the front areas, Al-Arabi relied on counter-attacks that almost resulted in a second goal on two occasions, the first when the ball reached the Icelandic Aron Gunnarsson inside the area, and he quickly shot over the crossbar in The 36th minute, and the second when Youssef Al-Masakni was alone in the goal, but a wonderful intervention from Muaither goalkeeper Moayad Shanan saved the situation in the 41st minute.
Al-Arabi imposed great control over the course of the second half, in which Muaither was unable to show effectiveness, as in the first half, in light of the speed of Youssef Al-Masakni’s comrades in recovering balls and attacking construction, which resulted in a continuous threat to the goal of goalkeeper Moayad Shanan, so Youssef Al-Masakni scored a goal that was canceled by the referee on the grounds of offside. In the 63rd minute, Omar Al-Somah also scored another goal that was canceled by the referee for the same reason in the 67th minute, before Msakni returned to score a correct goal after he exchanged the ball with Ibrahim Kalla and hit a powerful ball that hit the net in the 71st minute, reinforcing his team’s lead with the second goal.
Al-Arabi dominated all the details of the match for the remainder of the time, and its players raced to waste easy opportunities in front of the Muaither team, which was no longer able to keep up with the large format of its opponent, without success in creating any offensive danger, contenting itself with defense to end the match with a deserved victory for Al-Arabi, who secured the semi-final seat for merit.
