KARACHI: Arif Mehmood scored twice as Wapda brought Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) back to earth with a 4-0 thrashing of Shamim Khan’s side in the Pakistan Premier Football League (PPFL) on Saturday.

Fourth-placed PIA went into the match on a three-match winning run but were undone by a Wapda side who too came into the match on the back of three straight wins.

Arif’s namesake Syed Arif Hussain fired Wapda into the lead when he scored five minutes in at the Railways Football Stadium in Lahore.

Arif then got into the act, scoring with a penalty ten minutes later after PIA’s Shahram Babar’s foul inside the box before making it 3-0 three minutes into the second half.

Mohammad Bilal completed the rout in the 76th when he added a fourth as Wapda moved to 16 points from nine matches and a point behind PIA who have played 10 games so far.

Wapda though remain seventh with two other teams — Muslim FC and Karachi Port Trust (KPT) — also on 17 points.

K-Electric are third with 20 points from 10 matches following their 5-2 humbling of Pakistan Railways on Thursday.

Pakistan Army, meanwhile, are eight points clear at the top with 29 points from 14 matches after their 3-0 win over Afghan FC the other day.

Second-placed Pakistan Air Force (PAF) have two games in hand over the league leaders.

Published in Dawn, November 23th , 2014