JEDDAH, 21 November 2005 — Asian Champions League titleholders Al-Ittihad lost a marathon match yesterday against Wedad of Morocco and failed to advance to the quarterfinals of the Arab Champions League.
After two extra times produced no result, the second leg of the round of 16 match played in Casablanca, Morocco was decided via the penalty shootout in which the home team won 4-1 to go through with a 6-3 aggregate victory. They won 2-0 in stoppage time to cancel out the visitors’ 2-0 win in the first leg in Jeddah and force the extension as a result of a deadlock in the aggregate score. Wedad’s regulation period goals came from Hisham Luwesi with a penalty kick in the 8th minute and Muhammad Bin Shurfa in the 62nd minute.
During the shootout Ittihad’s hopes were gone when both old reliables Muhammad Nur and Hamzah Idris missed allowing the Moroccan team to go through to the last eight.
The match ended ugly when Osama Al-Muwallad kicked a TV cameraman in the leg sending him writhing in pain. After Ittihad’s exit, Al-Nasr were left to continue the campaign for the Kingdom in the competition having made the quarterfinals by beating another Moroccan team Olympic Esfi on penalties 5-3 in the second leg of their round of 16 tie. After winning the first leg match in Riyadh 2-0, Nasr lost 2-0 in the regulation to extend the match to extra time and later to penalty kicks. Nasr converted all five attempts and the Moroccan team managed only to score three goals out of five.
Meantime, in the Saudi League Cup Al-Ahli host Taie of Hail today at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium here. Ahli enter the match with 10 points in 4th position and Taie with 7 points in sixth.
