Football players from "Ahal" won against Mary's "Merv" - 4:0 in a rescheduled match of the 12th round of the Turkmenistan championship among clubs of the top league.
The game took place at the "Nisa" stadium in the capital.
Both teams have different tasks in the current national championship. Former Turkmenistan champion "Ahal" is fighting for the bronze medals, while "Merv" is trying to leave the last place in competition with Mary's "Energetik" and Turkmenbashi's "Shagadam".
Balkanabat's "Nebitchi", which is in third place, lost to silver medalist "Altyn Asyr"- 1:2 in the previous match of the 24th round, creating intrigue in the battle for the bronze.
Serdar Geldiyev's team took full advantage of the failure of the football players from Balkanabat and scored two goals in each half against "Merv". The goals were scored by: Shokhrat Soyunov (17th minute), Gurbanmukhammet Esenov (41st), Gurban Annaev (79th), and Alibek Abdyrakhmanov (90+2nd).
After this victory, the team of the Main Department of "Turkmennebitonumleri" gained 29 points and reduced the gap from "Nebitchi" to 5 points, having two matches in reserve.
"Ahal" is a two-time participant in the AFC Champions League. This year, the former Turkmenistan champion achieved its second victory in the main Asian club tournament, beating Saudi Arabia's "Al-Fayha" at home - 1:0, and also took points from the multiple champion of Uzbekistan, "Pakhtakor", playing a 1:1 draw with them at home. As a result of the six matches, "Ahal" took 4th place in Group A with 4 points, behind "Al Ain" (15), "Al-Feiha" (9) and "Pakhtakor" (7).
As for the bronze medalist of last year's Turkmenistan championship, "Merv", this year, after 17 years, they made their second attempt to compete for the second most important Asian club trophy - the AFC Cup. A round before the end of the competition in Group "E", the football club from Mary is in third place with 3 points. The same number of points has Tajik "Ravshan" closing the standings. The Kyrgyz team "Abdysh-Ata" and the Turkmen team "Altyn Asyr" have 13 and 7 points respectively in this group.
