Saudi Arabia beat Algeria to reach football final at Islamic Solidarity Games

KONYA: The Saudi national under-23 team qualified for the final of the football competition at the fifth Islamic Solidarity Games after beating Algeria 2-1 on Sunday night.

The young Green Falcons started the match in dominant manner and took a two-goal lead thanks to strikes by Haitham Asiri in the 14th minute, and Ahmed Al-Ghamdi in the 20th.

Algeria reduced the deficit to one goal five minutes before the break, but the Saudi team saw out the match successfully despite having Mohammed Maran sent off in the 85th minute, and enduring six minutes of stoppage time.

Saudi Arabia last reached the final of the football competition at the games when the tournament was held in Makkah in 2005.

Meanwhile, Saudi success in weightlifting continued with two more medals for Ali Al-Othman, raising the overall tally in Turkey to 20 (one gold, 11 silver and eight bronze). The Kingdom’s weightlifting team has claimed 11 of the total.

Al-Othman took silver in the clean and jerk with a lift of 192 kilograms and bronze for finishing third overall with 349 points.

The Saudi women’s 3×3 basketball team opened their campaign with a close 20-19 victory over Qatar, while the men’s handball team lost the bronze medal match 30-21 to Iran.