KARACHI: Discarded international Shakir Lashari’s solitary goal guided Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to a 1-0 victory over Navy in the Pakistan Premier Football League here at the Korangi Baloch Football Ground in Sharafi Goth on Friday.
In Lahore, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) held WAPDA to a 1-1 draw.
The Navy-PIA match turned out to be a sweating affair with both sides offering tough resistance to each other on the lush green pitch.
A source who saw the game said that former FIFA referee Jehangir Khan disallowed a goal scored by PIA’s Ishtiaq in the first half.
The lineman came to Jehangir and told him something and his body language showed that he was telling the referee that it was a clear goal but Jehangir did not bother.
Another source said that Ishtiaq’s drive hit the goal-line after crashing the cross bar. But it had hit the goal-line and had not crossed it and that was why the goal was disallowed.
Ishtiaq strongly reacted against the decision and also had an exchange of hot words with Karim. According to rules, if the lineman is in a right position he can signal it for a goal but here it seemed that the ball had not crossed the goal-line.
At half time, the match was evenly poised without any goal.
After the breather PIA played fine football and Shakir Lashari smartly guided a cross from the right-out Riaz in the 68th minute.
The loss left Navy at four points from four appearances.
“We could have won with even better margin had we not missed around four open net chances. What you call it when Shakir Lashari misses a goal,” PIA coach Shamim Khan told ‘The News’.
Shamim said his side’s next match against KPT would be of immense importance. “You know we were beaten by KPT 5-1 in our previous match, so we would like to take revenge,” said Shamim.
At the Railways Stadium in Lahore, PAF played a draw against four-time winners WAPDA to take their points to five from five appearances.
After a barren first half Hasnain Abbas put WAPDA ahead in the 48th minute before Irfan Ali brought the parity for PAF in the 60th minute.
Today’s fixture: HBL v KESC (KPT Stadium, Karachi)
from The News