Asian CupAsian Cup roundup: Saudi Arabia recover to beat Oman with late winner
- Ali al-Bulayhi scores injury-time goal in Qatar
- Thailand beat Kyrgystan 2-0 in other Group F game
Saudi Arabia came from behind to beat Oman 2-1 in their Asian Cup Group F opener on Tuesday at a packed Khalifa International Stadium where VAR awarded the Green Falcons a late winner from Ali al-Bulayhi in second-half injury time.
Oman took the lead when they counterattacked from a poorly taken Saudi corner and Hassan al-Tambakti won a penalty when he was clipped in the area, with Salaah al-Yahyaei stepping up to score with a confident finish.
However, Saudi Arabia were the better side in the second half and after missing a couple of chances Abdulrahman Ghareeb took it upon himself to dribble past four Oman defenders before finishing calmly.
Saudi Arabia completed the comeback in the sixth minute of added time when Bulayhi headed home from a set-piece and although the assistant’s flag went up for offside VAR intervened to award Roberto Mancini’s side the goal.
“The second half was better than the first half, we created a lot of chances, we had more possession. If you have more possession, you have chances to score,” Mancini said. “Oman defended very well. We didn’t find good solutions at first but we had chances and we scored the second goal in the end, but we should have scored before.”
Supachai Chaided scored both of Thailand’s goals in a 2-0 victory against Kyrgyzstan in the other Group F game. Thailand dominated at Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium and could have scored twice early on when Supachok Sarachat hit the post and Suphanat Mueanta had an effort come off the crossbar.
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Supachai made his team’s superiority count in the 26th minute when he converted on the rebound after Bordin Phala’s shot was saved by the Kyrgyzstan goalkeeper, Erzhan Tokotaev. Supachai scored his second three minutes after the break with another close-range finish as Kyrgyzstan struggled to deal with a cross into the area.
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