Doha: The semi-finals of the 17th Asian Clubs League Championship will be an Qatar vs Kuwait affair tomorrow at the Ali Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah Sports Hall in Al Sadd.
With the curtain coming down on the preliminary round matches in the two groups yesterday, the semi-final lineup will see Qatar’s Lekhwiya take on Al Kuwait of Kuwait, while in the second semi-final defending champions El Jaish will face Al Qurain of Kuwait.
Another Qatari club, Al Gharafa missed out on the race to reach the semi-finals.
In all-Qatari clash, Lekhwiya defeated Al Gharafa 29-25.
The win for Lekhwiya paved the way for Al Qurain to book a last four place.
After the first quarter with Lekhwiya comfortably leading by seven goals, their fourth straight victory in as many games could be expected.
But the all-Qatari duel took an unexpected turn as Al Gharafa made a tremendous improvement in defense, forcing their opponents to make mistakes. In attack they increased efficiency and came back goal by goal.
In the second half they managed to take the lead and seemed to be on their way to a surprise victory that would mean a last minute qualification for the semi-final spot.
But in the last ten minutes Al Gharafa’s luck ran out. After receiving three 2-minute suspensions at the same time, Lekhwiya saw their chance and quickly reclaimed the lead. Still the underdogs fought for victory but missed too many chances in the hectic final minutes of the game.
In the last match of the day, El Jaish of Qatar edged past already qualified Al Kuwait Club of Kuwait 33-29 and continued their unbeaten run in the championship to set up a semi-final game against another Kuwaiti club Al Qurain.
Earlier, Al Qurain defeated Al Salt Club of Jordan 22-21 in a closely contested match.
The Jordanians, who had lost all their three games, fought every inch and the match which appeared to be an easy march on paper turned out be trickier than expected. The Peninsula
