LAHORE – A closing minute goal by Pakistan U-14 team skipper Muneer Aftab helped Lyari Town beat Kalakot 1-0 to stroll into the final of the PFF-KESC Lyari Football League at Kalakot’s Shaheed Abdul Rehman Park, Karachi. Lyari Town will take on Singolane in the final on Monday at Peoples Sports Complex, Karachi.
Earlier in first semi-final, Singolane kept their early lead alive for 63 minutes to brush aside Bihar 1-0 in the first semi-final of 17-day Lyari soccer fiesta. Muneer, who was rewarded Rs.95,000 at such younger age by Pakistan Football Federation (PFF)’s President Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat for his leadership and MVP Award at AFC U14 Festival of Football at Hamedan City, Iran, hammered the lone goal for Lyari Town in the 64th minute.
Muneer also won the applaud of crowd for his late winner and was voted Man of the Match and took shield from NBP Sports Officer and Iqbal Qasim. Earlier in first semi-final, striker Idrees Rehman netted all-important goal for Singolane in the seventh minute that turned out to be the winner. It was Idrees’ sixth goal of the event.
Bihar failed to reply and went out of event. Singoline also clinched Man of the Match Award when full back Adnan Ashraf took it from former Asian Games gold medalist boxer and coach Pakistan boxing team Ali Bakhsh. The 16-team event, consuming 17 days, saw the elimination of Hub, Nawalane, Daryabad and Baghdadi in the quarter-final stage while eight teams saying good bye to event earlier were Rangiwara, Nayabad, Kalri, Winder , Uthal, Agra, Bela and Khadda who failed to impress soccer fans in League.
The two semi-finals were supervised by Abdul Aziz, Abdul Karim, Dad Rehman, Ansar Javed, Farid Ahmed, Ansar Javed, Shahid Ismail, Jalal Ahmed under Match Commissioner Yaqoob Baloch.
Monday (24 Jan) fixture:
Final: Lyari Town v Singolane (Peoples Sports Complex, 3 PM).
