Asian Cup 2015 (Qs) MD3: Lebanon 1-1 Kuwait

AFC – BEIRUT, Lebanon continued to rebuild their 2015 AFC Asian Cup qualifying campaign after coming from behind to share a 1-1 draw with Kuwait at Sports City Stadium on Tuesday.

Yousef Al Sulaiman’s strike midway through the first half of the Group B contest opened the scoring for unbeaten Kuwait, who made the trip to Beirut having recorded a win in Thailand before drawing at home with Iran.

But Mohamad Ghaddar pulled the home side level at the start of the second half as Lebanon added to March’s 5-2 win over Thailand having begun the qualifying campaign with a worrying 5-0 defeat at the hands of Iran.

“We were not good in the first half as the players were separate and we were not playing like one unit,” said Lebanon coach Giuseppe Giannini.

“Some players took some time to get into the mood of the match and this affected us as we conceded the first goal on the night.

“In the second period things changed and the players gave their maximum and they created many scoring chances and they showed great fighting spirit. We will try our best to fix the mistakes that we made tonight in our preparation for the next match.”

Kuwait opened the scoring midway through an evenly contested first half as the ball broke fortunately for Al Sulaiman on the edge of the penalty area and the midfielder fired a low shot across Lebanon goalkeeper Abbas Hassan and into the bottom corner.

But Lebanon came quickly out of the blocks at the start of the second half and equalised five minutes after the restart as Ghaddar turned home from close range from Walid Ismail’s cross following an expertly executed free-kick routine from the home side.

However, Kuwait held on for the draw which kept them a point ahead of Lebanon in second place in the group and two points behind leaders Iran, who beat Thailand 2-1 in Tuesday’s other Group B game.

“We came to Beirut in order to win and we were hoping to get three important points,” said Kuwait coach Jorvan Vieira.

“In the first half the players gave an impressive performance and we took a good lead. However, things changed in the second period as our level dropped and Lebanon were aggressive and they managed to equalise.

“Overall, the result is good and we have now spotted some weaknesses in our opponents which we will try to take advantage of and get a win at home against them next month.”