June 07, 2006	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 10, 1427

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LAHORE, June 6: A decisive penalty-kick by Hikmatullah helped Wohaib Club, emerge as champions in the National U-21 football championship after a nail-biting 4-3 win on penalty- shootout against defending champions Pakistan Army in the final at Railways Stadium on Tuesday.

It was a tedious encounter as forwards of either sides failed to score during the regulation time and later in the extra time of 30 minutes.

To decide the outcome, five penalty-kicks were awarded to each side in which Wohaib Club recovered from being 3-1 down to win.

Army's Abid Ali converted the first penalty-kick with a low but powerful try which landed into the left corner to put the soldiers 1-0 up.

Wohaib’s skipper Adeem Shahzad, levelled the score 1-1 beating Army's goalkeeper Mohammad Imran. Army regained the lead 2-1 through Fayyaz Masih.

Wohaib's Ali Ehsan disappointed his team when he missed with his efforts.

Army went 3-1 up through Mohammad Riaz.

Wohaib reduced the margin 3-2 through Waqar Ali, but surprisingly, Army sent its goalkeeper Imran to take the next kick.

Imran's try went straight into the hands of goalkeeper Bilal Rafique that gave new life to Wohaib.

Wohaib made it 3-3 when Muhammad Ahmad converted the fourth penalty kick.

But Army's skipper Adnan Bari disappointed his team as he failed to beat the goalkeeper, before Hikmatullah capitalised for Wohaib to complete the scoring.

Earlier, Army dominated both sessions of play but missed sereral chances through poor shooting.

Army instead playing an attacking game by exchanging short passes, indulged itself in hitting the ball high in the air while Wohaib Club used negative tactics to defend their goal.

Army made the first onslaught in the 2nd minute but Abid Ali, the top scorer of the championship with six goals, failed to finish.

Ten minutes later Abid and Hikmatullah made a movement from the centre but again they ended up with wayward shooting.

Wohaib made their presence felt for the first time in the 17th minute and earned a corner. But Army's goalkeeper Imran saved well.

In 31st minute, Wohaib Club again raided the rivals' cage through combined moves from Mohammad Ramzan and Adeem Shahzad but there was no one to put the ball into an open goal.

After goalless first half, the second session saw same unimpressive play.

Wohaib missed a chance when they were awarded a free kick just from outside the box.

Army missed another sitter in the 81st minute when Jamil failed to head the ball into an empty net.

After that no worthy try was made as both teams entered the extra-half of 30 minutes which also failed to produce the result.

Teams:

Wohaib Club, Lahore: Bilal Rafique, Mohammad Imran, Mohammad Ahmad, Abdul Razzaq, Waqar Ali, Ali Ehsan, Adeem Shahzad, Mohammad Shahid, Hikmat Ullah, Usman Malik, Mohammad Ramzan.

Army: Mohammad Imran, Abid Ali, Faheem Riaz, Adnan Bari, Majid Khan, Khalid Munir, Jaffar Ali, Mohammad Saleem, Shahbaz, Mustafa, Jamil, Fayyaz Masih.