Gulf Cup final goes into extra time with Oman and Iraq 1-1

Muscat: Oman has scored a goal through Penalty after 90 minutes through Salaah Al Yahyaei. 

Hosts Iraq and Oman were locked in a 1-1 stalemate to force the match into extra-time in the final of the 25th Arabian Gulf Cup at the Basra International Stadium in Basra, Iraq on Thursday night.

An injury time goal from Oman by Salah al Yahayei helped the Red Warriors to cancel the goal of Iraq's Ibrahim Bayesh. With just seconds left for the injury time to finish, Oman got a lifeline with a penalty after Zahr Al Aghbari was fouled inside the box. The spot kick was awarded after a VAR check by the Romanian referee.

Branko Ivankovic’s Oman earlier had a golden chance to equalise when Salah al Yahayei earned a penalty with eight minutes remaining. Jameel al Yahmadi, the hero of Oman’s semi-final win over Bahrain, smashed a weak spot kick, which was saved by Iraqi goalkeeper Jalal Hassan.

Cheered by a partisan home crowd of around 65,000 fans, the hosts capitalised on a rare defensive blunder from Oman to get the all-important goal in the 24th minute of the match.

A throw-in on the right flank saw a poor clearance from an Omani defender with the ball falling straight to Ibrahim Bayesh.

The Iraqi striker unleashed a low volley to the wide of a diving Omani goalkeeper Ibrahim al Mukhaini to put the hosts ahead and send the thousands of fans into raptures.

Oman also had a fair amount of goal-scoring opportunities but Salah al Yahayei was guilty on couple of occasions while Jameel al Yahmadi had a claim of a penalty turned down before the interval.

Earlier the final was marred by a deadly stampede earlier in the day at the venue as thousands of Iraqi fans turned up at the stadium in an attempt to get into the stadium.

 Iraqi authorities, according to news media reports, said that at least four people died and dozens injured with more than 50 in critical condition.

After lot of consultations with the Iraqi government closely monitoring the security and safety aspects, the green signal to go ahead with the match was given couple of hours before the kick-off at 8pm, Oman time.