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| October 19, 2005 | Wednesday | Ramzan 14, 1426 |
Soccer: Wapda regain top spot
RAWALPINDI, Oct 18: Pakistan Navy surprised PTCL by a solitary goal while title favourites Wapda and KRL emerged easy winners over their less formidable opponents in the Pakistan Premier League Football championship at floodlit Army Stadium on Monday night.
Wapda and Pakistan Army are now firm favourites for the title with 44 and 42 points though the soldiers have played one game less in the home-and-away championship.
The sailors’ upset their strong opponents PTCL with all- important goal of the clash netted by Zaheer in the 61st minute.
In other matches of the night, Wapda brushed aside Panthers’ Club, Faisalabad, 4-1, after leading 2-1 at halftime, to regain their place at top of the points table while KRL made light of Wohaib Club, Lahore, 2-0.
Qurban provided lead to the Panthers’ Club, Faisalabad, with a delightful 11th minute strike but that only spurred Wapda to greater action as Niaz and Imran found the net within one minute of each other after half an hour of play.
After the break, Arif and Zahid consolidated the lead for the table-toppers Wapda in the 51st minute and two minutes from the final whistle.
KRL surged to a two goal lead by halftime, courtesy Qadeer who was on target in the 29th minute and Allah Nawaz who doubled the margin just at the stroke of the halftime whistle.
Panthers and Wohaib were to face off each other in the only encounter scheduled for Tuesday night.
However, the race for the title may well be decided after two important encounters on Wednesday night when former national champions Pakistan Army play PTCL while Wapda take on KRL.
Pakistan Army had thrashed KRL 3-0 at the weekend to replace Wapda at the top of the table. However, Wapda’s overnight triumph against Panthers enabled them to regain the top spot for them though the soldiers have played one game less.
Points table (tabulated under matches played, won, drawn, lost, goal for, goal against, points.
Wapda 20 12 5 2 42 12 44
Army 19 13 3 3 45 8 42
KRL 20 12 4 4 41 22 40
PTCL 20 11 4 6 36 24 36
NBP 22 9 8 5 31 19 35
Afghan FC 21 10 4 7 25 27 34
HBL 22 7 5 10 24 36 26
KPT 22 6 6 10 27 35 24
Wohaib FC 21 5 5 11 16 4 0 20
Navy 22 5 6 11 17 26 21
Panther FC 20 5 2 13 19 44 17
PWD 22 3 3 16 14 44 12
—APP
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