A festive atmosphere prevailed at the Basra International Stadium here yesterday as Iraq played Qatar in a historic game after FIFA lifted a long-standing ban on the country hosting international matches.
A brace by Akram Afif and another strike by Ismail Mohamed gave Qatar a 3-2 win in front of about 65,000 passionate fans who were witnessing two top regional teams battle it out on their home turf for the first time in several years.
The International Friendship Championship, in which Syria is also taking part, was put in place after it was widely anticipated that the ban on Iraq would be lifted during FIFA’s Council Meeting in Bogota last week.
Only three Iraqi cities – Erbil, Basra and Karbala – have been cleared by the world football body as of now as security concerns remain for other cities, including the capital Baghdad.
The Qatari team was warmly received by the crowd who cheered loudly during the match and gave them a standing ovation when proceedings ended.
Qatar, who were beaten by Iraq in the recent Gulf Cup in Kuwait, were keen to get even and they did in style much to the satisfaction of coach Felix Sanchez.
Akram Afif opened the scoring for Qatar with a beautiful finish in the 17th minute.
Karim Boudiaf started the move through the middle and found Almoez Ali, who in turn passed the ball to Akram in space on the left. The Qatari forward drew Iraqi goalkeeper Mohamed Hameed towards him beat him all ends up with a deft left-footer.
Akram soon had a chance to double the lead but his shot off another pass from Almoez hit the side netting.
Qatar were made rue their miss as Iraq equalised not long after. Qatar’s offside trap failed miserably and Ahmed Yassin turned in Brwa Nour’s cross from the right in the 31st minute to make it 1-1.
However, Akram handed back the advantage to Qatar with a stunner in the first half added time.
A deft layoff from Almoez helped Akram break through the middle and though he had two of his team-mates on the right, he opted to shoot from outside the box and it turned out to be a stinger.
Iraq had chances to equalise at the start of the second period, but it was Qatar who scored again, in the 63rd minute.
Again it was a flowing passage of play, the ball moving from Akram to Almoez on the left to captain Hassan al-Haydos on the right.
By the time al-Haydos crossed from the right byline, Iraqi defence was in tatters and Ismail Mohammed was left with a tap-in on the goal line.
Iraq hit back in no time as a long clearance from keeper Hameed caught out Qatari defence. Muhanad Ali was left one on one with Saad al-Sheeb and though the Qatari goalkeeper managed to stick his foot out it only wrong-footed the frantically-backtracking Bassam Hisham who stopped the ball with his hands.
Earlier, Qatar Football Association President Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed al-Thani arrived in Basra to a warm reception.
The QFA chief met with top Iraqi government and football officials and discussed ways to develop sporting ties between the two nations.
