Lebanon bid farewell to West Asian championship and defeat to Yemen

The Lebanese team ended their participation in the West Asian Championship by defeating their Yemeni counterpart (1-2) on Thursday during Group A matches in Karbala.

The Lebanese team suffered its second defeat in the tournament until August 14, after a first 1-0 victory against Iraq. Al-Arz drew 0-0 with the Palestinian team and won 2-1 against Syria.

Lebanese captain Hbadan Maatouq attributed the loss and modest results to "the intensity of the games that have fatigued the players and the timing of the tournament, which corresponds to the decline in the physical level of the players".

"Our participation in the tournament is a good opportunity to get ready before the start of the Asian qualifiers (joined for the 2022 World Cup and the 2023 Asian Cup) .We have also benefited from the detection of errors."

During the match that took place Thursday at the Karbala International Stadium, the Lebanese team missed several opportunities, including a Rabia Ataya head past the post (22), before Mohamed Qadouh catches up with the opportunity and scores the first goal in the 26th minute.

However, the Yemeni team canceled the result in the final minutes of the first half and scored their first goal against Imad Mansour Tawfiq (42), before Abdul Wbada Al-Matari scored the goal with a penalty (45 + 1).

With this result, the Yemeni team emerged as a competitor to qualify for the group in the final, where they increased their score to four points in second place, behind Iraq (7), which hurt Syria.