ISA TOWN (Bahrain): Pakistan’s football team is used to this. After every four years when the World Cup qualifiers come around, Pakistan exit at the first stage.

On Monday, in a rescheduled second leg of their first-round qualifier for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, a goalless draw against Yemen sent Mohammed Al Shamlan’s men crashing out 3-1 on aggregate.

It also extended Pakistan’s dismal record of never having won a World Cup qualifying match.

Looking to overturn a 3-1 first-leg defeat to Yemen in the first leg two weeks ago, Pakistan needed a 2-0 win to advance to the second round here at the Khalifa Sports City Stadium — a match played at neutral venue after the suicide bombings in Lahore’s Youhanabad neighbourhood saw the second leg scheduled to be held at the Punjab Stadium last Tuesday postponed.

There was a sense of urgency early on as Pakistan dominated their ‘home leg’ with Mansoor Khan testing the Yemen goalkeeper Mohammed Ayash with a long-range shot 15 minutes in before Mohammad Riaz missed a one-on-one situation four minutes later.

Those missed chances saw Pakistan fizzle out as Yemen took over and although they never killed off the tie with a number of chances they created, they held out for a draw which takes them to the 40-team second round of qualifying, which merges qualifying for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.

Published in Dawn March 24th , 2015

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