DOHA, Dec 15: Host nation Qatar won the 428th and final gold medal of the 15th Asian Games when they beat Iraq 1-0 in a scrappy men's soccer final on Friday.
Defender Bilal Rajab headed home after 63 minutes to win his country a ninth gold at the Dec. 1-15 sports extravaganza and send a majority of the 12,000 or so supporters in the Al-Sadd stadium into a frenzy.
After two weeks of disappointing crowds, Qatari nationals turned out in force for the soccer final and the stadium was filling up with white-robed locals two hours before kickoff.
MORE ADVENTUROUS Qatar's skilful midfielders made frequent forays into the Iraq half in the first half but it was from set pieces that they looked most dangerous with Uruguay-born Sebastian hitting the bar with a glancing header from a corner in the eighth minute.
After 25 minutes, some neat dribbling saw Khalfan Al Khalfan skip past three defenders but his shot from the edge of the six-yard box came off the legs of Iraqi goalkeeper Mohammed Khadum.
The deadlock was broken eight minutes into the second half when Majdi Siddiq's corner was headed on by Hussain Abdulrahman.
Khadum got a touch but Rajab was on hand to head it into the net.
Sebastian put the ball in the net again a minute later but was offside and the striker hit the side netting after an hour as the hosts threatened to run riot.—Agencies
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