A goal in each half gave Pakistan a consolation win over Chinese Taipei in their last match of the AFC Challenger Cup qualifiers on Friday.
Having already lost any hope for qualification after losing their first two matches, Pakistan broke the shackles in the 26th minute, when Arif Mehmood scored the first goal at the MBJP Stadium in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
Pakistan’s second goal came in he 67th minute as Atif Qureshi beat the Chinese Taipei goalkeeper Chung Kuang Tien to seal the win for the greenshirts.
Losses against Turkmenistan and India meant Pakistan were out of contention for qualification but Tariq Lutfi’s side ensured they ended their tour on a positive note with a consolation win.
Earlier, honours were even between India and Turkmenistan as the two sides that advanced from Group B rounded off their qualifying campaign with a 1-1 draw. Turkmenistan took the lead with Gahrymanberdi Chonkayev’s 52nd-minute penalty.
India’s Jeje Lalpekhula continued goal-scoring form when he equalised on the hour mark for his fourth goal of the competition.
The 20-year-old’s tally proved a decisive factor in India finishing top of the table on the basis of goals scored after the two sides finished their respective campaigns with an identical goal difference.
Teams Pakistan: Amir Gul, Muhammad Omar, Manzoor Ahmed, Alamgir Khan, Atif Bashir Qureshi, Samar Ishaq, Zeeshan Rehman, Faisal Iqbal, Syed Arif Hussain, Muhammad Adil, Mahmood Kha, Kashif Mumtaz Siddiqui, Abdul Aziz, Nasr Ullah Khan, Adnan Farooq Ahmed, Jadeed Khan Pathan, Rizwan Asif, Kalim Ullah, Imran Niazi, Arif Mehmood, Muhammad Qasim
Chinese Taipei: Kuang-Tien Chung, Chih-Hsin Tsai, Po-Cheng Lin, Shan-Fu Chen, Yung-Hsien Chang, Cheng-Yi Lin, Yu-Lin Chen, Yi-Wei Chen, Chao-Hsun Yang, Hsien-Tang Tsai, Che-Yuan Chan, Chih-An Lo, Po-Liang Chen, Ming-Han Chiang, Kai-Chun Hung, Chi-Chao Liu, Cheng-Tsung Huang, Tzu-Jung Huang, Wu Pai-Ho, Han Chang, Chih-En Lo, Chun-Ching Wu, Chen Po-Hao
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