September 23, 2007	Sunday	Ramazan 10, 1428

LAHORE, Sept 22: Two goals each by Azamat Ishenbaev and Andrey Krasnov provided defending champions club Dordoi-Dynamo of Kyrgyzstan, with a convincing 4-0 victory against Khemara Club of Cambodia in their first AFC President’s Football Cup match at the Punjab Stadium on Friday night.

The first half saw the winners scoring all the goals with the second half being seemingly dull in comparison.

Both the teams cautiously raided on each other’s goalposts in the beginning before Dordoi’s midfielder Azamat put the holders 1-0 ahead in the 14th minute with an angular shot that went past keeper Chanphanin Kong.

The defenders missed a sitter provided by the Ghana-born David Tetteh in the 22nd minute when the fierce header was blocked by Dordoi’s agile goalkeeper Valeri Kashuba.

Khemara’s second attempt to reduce the lead in the 26th minute failed again when Mandala tested keeper Kashuba with a long-range drive that missed its target.

Dordoi muffed a scoring opportunity in the 31st minute. The Jordanian referee Naser Al-Ghafaray gave a penalty to the winners as Khemara’s stopper Peas Sothy was involved in a handball foul. Azamat found the net in his first attempt but the referee declared it to be taken again and Azamat was not on target the second time.

But a minute later, in the 34th minute of the match, the winners made the lead 2-0 as Andrey Krasnov’s try off a penalty cashed in. Just two minutes later, Azamat made it a 3-0 after substitute midfielder Davron Askarov sent him a fine pass from the left. It took another five minutes before the interval, when Andrey scored his second goal to complete the tally. Aibek Bokoev collaborated with Andrey for the fourth goal when his well-timed cross from the right side was received well by Andrey.

Later, in the match between Nepal’s Mahendra Police and Chinese Taipei’s Tatung, an injury time goal-line clearance by Mahendra’s right-full-back Rakesh Shreshta brought a sigh of relief to the debutants as they held Tatung 0-0 in the second Group B match.