ammonnews.net

Ammon News - Saudi Arabia beat Jordan on penalties on the opening day of the 2024 WAFF U-23 Championship, an eight-team tournament taking place in the Kingdom until March 26.

The match between the Green Falcons and the Nashama ended in a 1-1 draw, with Abdulaziz Al-Faraj equalizing for the home team from the penalty spot in the 52nd minute after Jordan had taken a 16th-minute lead.

In the penalty shootout, Saudi Arabia scored two of their four kicks, but Jordan only managed one successful effort out of five.

In Wednesday’s other matches, Egypt beat the United Arab Emirates 1-0 in another all-Arab clash, the goal coming from Bilal Mazhar, while South Korea beat Thailand by the same score.

The tournament had kicked off with Australia beating Iraq 2-1 after taking a two-goal lead inside the first 15 minutes. Iraq pulled a goal back three minutes into the second half but could not complete the comeback.

Saturday’s semifinal will see Saudi Arabia take on South Korea and Australia face Egypt, with the final taking place next Tuesday.

In the classification playoffs, Iraq will play the UAE, and Jordan and Thailand will face off.

The winners of the classification fixtures will meet in the 5th place playoff and the losers will contest the 7th place playoff, all to be played on Tuesday as well.

Arab News