The football players of the youth team of Turkmenistan (not older than 17 years old) played a draw - 1:1 with their peers from Syria at the Asian Cup-2023 qualifying tournament in the Jordanian city of Zarqa and retained leadership in group A.
For both teams, this was the second match in the tournament. In the first, the Turkmen team won with a score of 2:0 against the Philippines, and the Syrians drew 0:0 with Jordan.
The match began with the attacks of the Syrian national team, which could open an account already in the 2nd minute. But our goalkeeper turned out to be on top, parrying the shot from close range.
In the first half, the Syrians had two more scoring chances. But in the first case, the defender of the Turkmen national team knocked the ball from the front line of the empty goal, and in the second episode, the forward of the opposing team was summed up by an inaccuracy at the end of the attack.
In the 44th minute, Batyr Shyhyyev’s wards also had a great chance to open an account. The team's captain Denis Titov beat the defender in the penalty area, but could not hit the target from an acute angle.
The opponents went to the break with the score 0:0.
The second half also began with the attacks of the Syrian team, which on the 61st and 62nd minutes could hit the gates of our team twice. The second moment was especially dangerous, when the attacker of the opponent from the line of the goalkeeper's area hit point-blank range, but the goalkeeper, having shown an excellent reaction, turned the ball to a corner.
As often happens in football: if you don't score, you will be scored. It happened this time as well. In the 65th minute, Denis Titov picked up the ball in the middle of the field, beat two defenders along the way and accurately shot from 20 meters into the lower right corner of the goal. The national team of Turkmenistan took the lead - 1:0.
However, this account did not last long. In the 72nd minute, the Syrians played a spectacular combination, which he completed with an aimed shot from outside the penalty area into the near corner of the goal, Homam Mahmud.
The end of the meeting was held with a noticeable advantage of the Turkmen football players, who could snatch the victory. But in one case, the goalkeeper saved the Syrian national team from an imminent goal, and in the other, the goal post.
In the 88th minute, the ball still went into the gates of the Syrian team, but the goal was not counted due to offside.
In another match of the 2nd round, the boys of Japan won against peers from the Philippines - 3:0.
Thus, after two rounds the youth team of Turkmenistan (U-17) has 4 points. 3 points for the Japanese team. Syria is in the third position with 2 points. The following places are taken by the players of Jordan and the Philippines, who respectively have 1 and 0 points. At the same time, the Japanese and Jordanians played a match less.
In the 3rd round, the young men of Turkmenistan will play with their peers from Japan, and in another match, the teams of Jordan and the Philippines will meet.
As a reminder, the winners of 10 qualifying groups and 5 best teams among the runners-up will advance to the final part of the Asian Youth Cup (U-17), which will be held from May 3 to 20, 2023 in Bahrain.
Following the results of the final stage, which is a qualification, the four best football teams will receive the right to represent Asia at the 19th Youth World Cup-2023 in Peru.
