K-Electric go down against Al-Hidd

KARACHI: K-Electric’s hopes of qualifying for the second-tier Asia’s club championship were dashed on Tuesday when they were beaten by Bahrain’s Al-Hidd 2-0 in the play-off in Manama.

Ifedayo Omosuyi and Ali Haram scored as Al-Hidd qualified for a third consecutive appearance in the group stage of the AFC Cup.

Nigerian Omosuyi opened the scoring after 55 minutes for 2014 AFC Cup quarter-finalists Al-Hidd against K-Electric, who won last year’s playoff qualifier in Bhutan.

With Haram scoring the second goal in stoppage time at the end of the second half, Al Hidd secured their place in Group A of this year’s AFC Cup.

Al Hidd had the upper hand during most of the first half, but neither side was able to create any major opportunity.

Ten minutes into the second half, Al-Hidd opened the scoring as Omosuyi headed home Mohamed Abdulla’s cross.

Three minutes into the additional time, Al-Hidd ensured their win when Haram made his way into the penalty area and beat K-Electric’s goalkeeper Jahangir Khan.

“We gave a good performance in the match and benefited a lot from playing in this game as we were up against one of the strongest sides in Bahrain. Our players learned a lot of lessons for the future,” K-Electric coach Hassan Baloch said.

“We were hoping that we could have a positive result in the match but at the end of the day the better side won,” he said.

K-Electric had recently inducted quite a few players in the side on handsome salaries in order to strengthen the line-up but it did not work.

“We were hoping to seal the result in the first half in order to avoid any pressure in the second half,” Al-Hidd coach Salman Sharida said after the match. “We tried to create some scoring chances but we failed to do so as the players were under pressure.” Salman was Pakistan’s coach in 2005-06.