Saudi Arabia are through to the final of the WAFF U23 Championship after beating Iraq 1-0 in their last four clash at the Prince Fahd Bin Mohamed Stadium in Dammam.
The Young Falcons will now contest Tuesday’s final against Jordan, who beat Syria 5-2 in the other semifinal earlier on Sunday. The 11-team tournament was organized by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation and the West Asia Football federation.
The home team’s winner came four minutes into the second half from a header by Khalid Al-Ghannam, the 20-year-old Al-Nassr winger.
Saudi Arabia started the stronger of the two teams with Abdullah Al-Hamdan unsuccessfully calling for a penalty after being stopped by the Iraqi goalkeeper when through on goal.
With Iraq happy to defend deep, Saudi Arabia continued to dominate the match and could have scored from opportunities for Turki Al-Ammar, Al-Hamdan and Al-Ghannam, but the first half ended goalless.
After the restart, substitute Muhannad Al-Shanqti’s fine cross found Al-Ghannam who gave the hosts the lead.
Though Iraq almost equalized when Zidane Iqbal hit the post in the 62nd minute, Saudi Arabia saw out the rest of the match to reach the final.