Muscat: Oman began their campaign in Group A qualifiers of the AFC Under-23 Championship with a fighting draw against Bahrain at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex on Monday.
Though Oman could not start with full points as desired by coach Hamad Al Azzani, they did well to fight back from a goal deficit to held Bahrain to a 1-1 draw.
Oman had to thank Saud Khamis’ penalty conversion in the 75th minute for earning the team a point after Abdullah Al Abbasi put Bahrain ahead early in the second half.
The one point they earned has kept alive Oman’s chances of clinching a direct berth in the Asian championship finals to be hosted in Doha next year.
The group winners and five best second-placed teams from ten groups will join hosts Qatar at the AFC U-23 Championship in 2016. And with defending champions Iraq in the group, Oman will have to improve further to top the group.
The five-team group also comprises Lebanon and Maldives. After a rest day, the matches resume on Wednesday when Iraq face Lebanon and Bahrain will lock horns with Maldives.
Oman play their next match against Lebanon on Friday, when Iraq will be playing their second match against Maldives.
Palestine, Iran win
Meanwhile, in Tehran, Palestine kicked-off their qualifying campaign with a 2-0 win over Afghanistan in the Group C curtain raiser.
According to news posted on the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) website, Mahmoud Abuwarda netted the first goal of the qualifying campaign with just seven minutes at the PAS Stadium played before Palestine skipper Mahmoud Shaikhqasem sealed the win with quarter-of-an-hour of the match left to play.
In another Group C match, Iran ran out comfortable 5-0 winners over Nepal.
Arsalan Motahhari put the home side one up after 14 minutes before a 27th minute penalty from skipper Behnam Barzay gave Iran a 2-0 lead to take into the interval at the PAS Stadium.
Sardar Azmoun, scorer of two goals for the senior side at the 2015 Asian Cup, made it 3-0 ten minutes into the second half and after Ali Karimi added to the Russia-based winger’s strike with Iran’s fourth in the 67th minute, Shahin Saghebi rounded off the victory three minutes from full time, with the substitute getting his name on the score sheet ten minutes after coming on to replace captain Barzay.
Palestine will be looking to build on their opening day win when they take on Saudi Arabia on Wednesday in their second Group C fixture while Afghanistan are also in action when they face Nepal on the same day.