Jordan’s players celebrate by throwing their coach Hossam Hassan Hassanien of Egypt after defeating Singapore during their Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup match in Singapore, yesterday.
SINGAPORE: Jordan booked their place at next year’s Asian Cup and made some amends for their World Cup heartache with an incident-packed 3-1 win over Singapore yesterday.
In a match which both teams finished with 10 men, the visitors owed their opener to a sly piece of skulduggery, and then had Singapore’s Baihakki Khaizan sent off for an innocuous nudge.
Ahmed Hayel rose unmarked to double Jordan’s lead in the second half, but there was more drama later when Chinese referee Tan Hai gave the scorer an unmerited red card for a tackle from behind.
Singapore ensured a grandstand finish when they pulled a goal back with six minutes remaining, via Khairul Amri from the penalty spot after a push on Muhammad Safuwan.
But Yousef Rawshdeh came on to score the goal of the night in injury-time to secure second place in Group A for Jordan and a spot at next year’s Asian Cup in Australia.
The victory also helps atone for Jordan’s disappointment in World Cup qualifying, when they reached the intercontinental play-offs only to lose 5-0 on aggregate to Uruguay.
Al Nashama (“the Brave Gentlemen”) had been expected to steamroller Bernd Stange’s bottom-placed Singapore, but they needed a mixture of guile and gamesmanship to take the lead just before half-time.
Bawab surprised Singapore by spinning off a two-man wall to curl in a free-kick, but the goal owed much to Hayel’s deliberate trip on Hafiz as the defender charged in to block.
Shortly afterwards, the hosts’ frustrations reached boiling point when Mus’ab Allahham went down far too easily under Khaizan’s challenge, earning the defender a red card.
Jordan’s second goal was a gift for Hayel, who stood still in the six-yard box and jumped to head in a corner, but his night was soon over when referee Tai sent him off for his tackle on Safuwan. Khairul Amri pulled one back from the spot on 84 minutes but Rawshdeh made his case for Jordan’s squad for Australia when he coolly made space and chipped in their third in stoppage time. AFP
