KARACHI, May 27: Hosts

Aga Khan University (AKU) and Institute of Business Management (IoBM) reached the 6th AKU Inter-university football tournament final after securing semi-final wins on Tuesday.

Both the pre-finals were decided on penalty shootouts after AKU and Institute of Business Administration (IBA) tied 3-3 and defending champions Ziauddin University (ZU) drew 0-0 with IoBM at the end of regulation time.

The gruelling encounter between AKU and IBA saw IBA’s centre-defence Nabeel Shakeel deflecting an own goal in to open scoring for the hosts in the 17th minute. But holding their nerves IBA tried remedying the mistake by levelling in the 19th minute, when their midfielder Athar Khan aimed directly, this time in the correct goalpost. The score was 1-1 at halftime.

The first goal in the second half was scored through AKU striker Waleed Zahid Butt’s individual effort in the 38th minute followed by IBA’s revenge in the 40th minute through centre-forward Asad Saeed.

It was AKU’s turn to move ahead again when Waleed struck once more in the 47th minute. But IBA were close at their heels when their left-winger Omer Warraich levelled again only moments later.

Forgoing extra time due to bad light after consulting both team captains — Nadeem Aqueel of AKU and IBA’s Omar Hasan Khan — the match then went on directly to penalty shootouts where AKU’s goalkeeper Shahid Sattar was able to block Omar Hasan Khan and Sameer Zafar’s shots while IBA’s goalie M. Shaharyar couldn’t stop Faisal Sajjad, Eraj Khursheed, Waleed Zahid Butt and Sufiyan Sial from netting the ball, enabling AKU to seal the match 7-5.

Earlier, the other semi-final between IoBM and ZU went into extra time when both remained scoreless at the final whistle. IoBM were clearly the better side in the match as they were on constant attack but couldn’t quite place the ball which if it wasn’t saved by Ziauddin’s brilliant goalkeeper Tahir Ahmed would constantly go over the bar.

When the match remained barren even after extra time, it was finally decided on shootouts where Ziauddin kept their goalie Tahir while IoBM replaced theirs with the tall and well-built Shahid Khan Afridi who clearly had a bigger reach — only Hisham Salahuddin’s straight low shot went in.

The rest were all very ably blocked by Shahid. Meanwhile Tahir after making three brilliant saves, couldn’t stop Omair Masoom and Haider Siddiqui from scoring to provide IoBM with a 2-1 victory.

The final will be played at 5.00pm on Thursday after Wednesday’s rest day.