Al Nahda of Oman fails to qualify for the AFC Cup final

The Lebanese club Al-Ahed qualified for the final match after tying with its host Al-Nahda of Oman 2-2 at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex Stadium in Muscat, in the second leg of the Al-Gharb region final in the AFC Cup 2023-2024.

Lee Irwin (82 and 87) scored the goals for Al-Ahed, while Omar Al-Maliki (53) and Walter Bwalya (89) scored the goals for Al-Nahda.

The first-leg match between the two teams was held last Tuesday, where Al-Ahed won 1-0 at Karbala International Stadium in Karbala, so the Lebanese team qualified for the final after winning 3-2 on aggregate in the two-legged matches.

Al-Ahed qualified to meet in the final of the tournament with the winner of the regional final, which brings together Abdesh Atta of Kyrgyzstan and the Central Coast Mariners of Australia, noting that the first leg ended in a 1-1 draw between the two teams in Bishkek.

In the group stage, Al-Nahda Club topped the first group standings with 9 points from four matches, compared to 6 points for Al-Ahed and 3 for Al-Futwa. Then, in the Western semi-final, it defeated Bahrain’s Riffa after the two teams tied 1-1 in the first leg and won 3-1 after extra time in the return match.

On the other hand, Al-Ahed won second place in the first group with 6 points from four matches, obtaining the card allocated to the best team in second place, before defeating Al-Kahraba of Iraq in the Western semi-finals after losing the first leg 1-0 and winning 1-0 in the return, then excelling 4-2 on penalties.

The two teams’ confrontations in the group stage witnessed Al-Ahed winning the first leg 2-1, then Al-Nahda winning 2-1 in the reply match.