KARACHI, April 8: The semi-final round of the Under-15 Youth Football Championship kicked off on Tuesday with ZU Football Academy beating Gulshan Soccer Academy 1-0.

Although the game mostly went on in Gulshan Academy’s half with ZU on constant attack, it wasn’t easy getting past Gulshan’s goalkeeper Waseem, who quickly cleared whatever came his way.

The winning goal came in the 22nd minute, off a brilliant pass from ZU’s Uzair to his fellow forward, Shoaib, who then wasted no time in pushing it into the goal even before goalie Waseem realised what was going on.

The score was 1-0 at interval and it stayed that way until the end even though ZU kept up the pressure in the second half.

It was good to see ZU playing with their defender, half-back Nabeel Ahmed who also plays for DA Public School. The player has now been given permission from his school to play for his club team too.

Earlier the other semi-final between Gharib Shah M’Dan and Zamzama United had to be postponed as the players were facing some difficulty making it to the ground during a school week.

It will now take place sometime before Friday when Bayview High take on DA Public and Beacon Jubilee face KGS in the school team semi-finals.

The finals will take place on Sunday.