With a strong-willed victory over the Maldivian club «Maziya Sports and Recreation» - 2:1, the «Arkadag» footballers started in the AFC Challenge League.
The AFC Challenge League is the third most important club tournament in Asia, in which teams of a weaker level participate compared to the participants of the elite AFC Champions League and AFC Champions League-2. It was established for ambitious teams to demonstrate their football talents.
In the 2024/25 season, 18 clubs are competing for the AFC Challenge League trophy, divided geographically into 2 zones - Western and Eastern. Matches in five groups are held in a centralized format, in which each team meets its opponents once.
Based on the results of the group stage, eight teams will advance to the quarterfinals: three group winners and the best of the runners-up in the Western Zone, as well as the two best from each group in the Eastern Zone.
The match between «Arkadag» and «Maziya Sports and Recreation» took place at the Kuwait Sports Club Stadium in Kuwait City, where Kuwaiti «Al-Arabi» and «Abdysh-Ata» from Kyrgyzstan are also fighting for a place in the quarterfinals in Group «B» of the Western Zone.
FC «Arkadag», which won its second championship in Turkmenistan this month with a 100% result in points and forms the backbone of the national team, debuted in the AFC Challenge League with a match against the Maldivian football club «Maziya Sports and Recreation», which was founded in 1996. It represents the «Maziya» Sports and Health Club. The team has become the champion of the Maldives five times, won the National Football Federation Cup three times and the President's Cup of its country twice. «Maziya Sports and Recreation» has participated in the AFC Cup nine times since 2013, but has not won any sporting laurels in the second most important Asian club tournament. This is not surprising, because football is not very popular in the Maldives. And therefore, before the game, many experts predicted an easy victory for the Turkmen club.
However, as it turned out, the match was not an easy walk for the two-time champion of Turkmenistan. Vladimir Bayramov's team went into the break even losing - 0:1. In the 45th minute, a lobbed pass from the right flank into the penalty area of «Arkadag» followed. Berdimyrat Rejepov tried to head the ball out, but did it right to Jonathan Cantillan, who opened the scoring with a powerful shot under the crossbar.
In the second half, the Turkmen footballers made a lot of effort to turn the tide of the game. And they succeeded. First, in the 66th minute, the best scorer of last year's national championship Didar Durdyyev, who came on as a substitute 6 minutes earlier, successfully responded to a lobbed pass from the left side of Ibrahim Mamedov and leveled the score with a header from the goal line - 1:1. And 10 minutes later, Shanazar Tirkishov and Altymyrat Annadurdyyev scored the same second goal together. Shanazar served from the left flank, and A. Annadurdyyev headed the ball into the net from close range.
Having snatched a 2:1 victory, «Arkadag» earned its first 3 points and will now face «Abdysh-Ata» from Kyrgyzstan in the second round, which won the opening match against Kuwaiti «Al-Arabi» 1:0 and tied the Turkmen club on points. The winning goal for the two-time champion of Kyrgyzstan was scored by Erbol Atabayev in the 62nd minute. In another match of the 2nd round, «Maziya Sports and Recreation» and «Al-Arabi» will play each other.
The tournament in Group «B» will end on the 1st of November with the matches «Al-Arabi» vs. «Arkadag» and «Maziya Sports and Recreation» vs. «Abdysh-Ata».
