Kuala Lumpur: Following back-to-back AFC Cup titles for Kuwait SC in 2012 and 2013, the two sides they defeated in those finals, Iraq's Arbil and Kuwait's Qadsia SC, found themselves face to face in the 2014 AFC Cup final.
For the first time in the competition’s 11-year history, the showpiece event was to take place at a neutral ground, Dubai’s Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium.
Early progress
Pitted in Group C against Bahrain’s Al Hidd, Iraq’s Al Shorta and Syria’s Al Wahda, Qadsia recovered from an opening-day goalless draw against Al Wahda to go on a four-game winning run that ensured their progress to the last 16 with a game to spare.
Qadsia then lost their final group outing 3-2 at Al Hidd but, with Syrian striker Omar Al Soma netting six times in their four wins – including a hat-trick against Al Shorta on Matchday Five – the Kuwaiti team had underlined their tournament credentials.
Arbil, in turn, were head and shoulders above their opponents in Group D and followed up a 3-1 opening-day victory in Jordan against Shabab Al Ordon with a 6-0 demolition of the Kyrgyz Republic’s Alay Osh in which veteran Iraqi midfielder Hawar Mulla Mohamed grabbed a hat-trick.
They lost 2-1 to Riffa but responded with an emphatic 3-0 win in the reverse fixture, before a last-minute strike from Spanish forward Borja Rubiato settled a five-goal thriller against Shabab Al Ordon. The Iraqi side then progressed as table-toppers with a 3-0 win in Osh.
Different challenges
As group winners, Qadsia played at home against knockout stage debutants That Ras of Jordan and by half-time had stormed to a 3-0 lead, before club legend Bader Al Mutawa added a fourth in the second period to confirm Qadsia’s quarter-final berth.
It was a different story for Arbil against the more established Lebanese side Nejmeh as 120 minutes of action saw no breakthrough and the game went to penalties.
Goalkeeper Jalal Hassan, though, produced a performance of a lifetime to save three Nejmeh spot kicks as Arbil advanced to the quarter-finals with a 3-0 shootout win.
Qadsia were faced with a rematch against Al Hidd in the last eight but this time only away goals would separate the sides as the Kuwaitis were held to a 1-1 draw at home before a last-minute own-goal brought them back from the dead in Bahrain and a 2-2 draw meant they edged through.
Arbil were thrown a longer trip for the quarter-finals as they travelled to Hanoi to face Vietnamese side Ha Noi T&T in the first leg.
Amjed Radhi’s penalty was the difference in a 1-0 win and the striker found the net again in the return leg to lead the side to a 3-0 aggregate victory.
Then there were two
Qadsia welcomed Indonesia’s Persipura Jayapura to Kuwait in the first leg of the semi-finals and they found themselves 2-1 down at the interval before turning things around courtesy of goals from Danjil Subotic, Saif Al Hashan and Al Mutawa for a 4-2 win.
Two weeks later, Qadsia made the trip east to Jayapura and, after another Al Hashan strike inside the opening five minutes, the goals flowed as a 6-0 victory ensued to advance 10-2 on aggregate and mean Kuwait would have a representative in the AFC Cup final for the sixth year running.
Luay Salah’s second-half opener for Arbil in their semi-final with Hong Kong’s Kitchee was cancelled out by Juan Belencoso’s penalty as the first leg ended 1-1.
A six-minute double salvo from Ali Faez and Radhi put the Iraqi side firmly in control inside 10 minutes in the second leg in Hong Kong, before the West Asians ultimately ran out 2-1 victors on the night and 3-2 on aggregate.
Third time lucky for Qadsia
When Persipura Jayapura knocked out Kuwait SC in the quarter-finals, the result confirmed the AFC Cup would have new champions.
Now, the trophy was either to stay in Kuwait for a third successive year or would belong to Iraq for the first time.
Goals were hard to come in the final. Both sides had lost their leading scorers in the competition over the summer, with Qadsia’s Al Soma signing for Al Ahli in Saudi Arabia while Arbil’s Rubiato moved back to his country to join Marbella.
With no goals in sight after 120 minutes, the 2014 AFC Cup final was to be decided from the spot. Star men Al Mutawa and Radhi delivered from the first pair of penalties before Arbil’s Hassan repeated his Round of 16 heroics to save from substitute Dhari Said.
Hawar Mohamed’s effort cannoned off the bar to wipe out Arbil’s advantage before Fahd Al Ansari and Barzan Sherzad exchanged goals.
Khalid El Ebrahim scored and Qadsia goalkeeper Nawaf Al Khaldi saved from Faez to allow Swiss forward Subotic to strike the winner as Qadsia made up for disappointments in 2010 and 2013 to lift the AFC Cup for the first time.
Photos: Lagardère Sports
Source: the-afc.com