Alam Zeb Safi [The News]
KARACHI: PMC Athletico held star-studded Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) to a 1-1 draw while Chaman’s Afghan FC beat Navy 2-1 in matches of the Pakistan Premier Football League on Thursday.
At the Peoples Sports Complex here, Faisalabad’s PMC Athletico, playing without their ailing coach Akhtar Mohiuddin, produced only their second point of the season from six appearances against KESC.
Naved Aamir opened the scoring for PMC Athletico from a corner-kick in the fifth minute on the bumpy pitch. The awkward bounce, particularly in the penalty area has resulted so far in several red cards.
In the 60th minute, KESC were reduced to ten men when key defender Akber Ali was sent off with a straight red card. But ten minutes later, parity was brought by the referee when he gave a red card to Mohammad Shehbaz of PMC Athletico.
KESC went all out in quest of an equaliser and finally captain Mohammad Essa obliged with a fine header on a cross from the left in the 75th as KESC moved their points tally to nine from six matches.
KESC manager Zeb Khan blamed missed chances for the result. “We missed several chances. Mohammad Rasool, Ahmed and Aurangzeb Senior were not on target. We will have to convert chances if we are to strengthen our position in the table,” Zeb told ‘The News’.
At the Sadiq Shaheed Stadium in Quetta, Afghan FC overwhelmed Navy to jump to the fourth spot with 11 points from five meetings. Skipper Jadeed Khan Pathan put Afghan FC on the front foot with solo effort in the 30th minute before Asif Bakhsh landed an equaliser for Navy in the 55th. Abdul Nasir then scored the winner in injury time to provide Afghan FC with a sensational win.
After the game, hundreds of fans who had specifically travelled to Quetta from Chaman to watch the game, showered their players particularly Jadeed Khan Pathan with cash prizes.
Navy have three points from seven games.
“We are yet to come out of the injury problems and the poor condition of the ground has also added to our misery,” Navy coach Khalid Zubair told this correspondent from Quetta.
At the same venue, the match between the truncated Pak Elektron Limited (PEL) and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) ended in a 1-1 stalemate. PAF were the first to settle down with a strike from Aamir Khan in the 21st minute before Rizwan Ahmed pulled one back for PEL in the 28th.
PAF took their tally to three points from seven matches while PEL also moved to three points from six games.
Today’s fixtures: Baloch FC v Army (Sadiq Shaheed Stadium, Quetta), HBL v KRL (Peoples Sports Complex, Karachi), NBP v WAPDA (KPT Stadium, Karachi).