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LAHORE Wapda made history on Sunday by becoming the first Pakistani football club to reach the semi-finals of the Asian Football Confederation President's Cup.
This is first time in the 42-year history of Asian club competitions, that a Pakistani club has made it to the semi-final stage of the AFC Cup.
The previous best show by a Pakistani club was by Wohaib Club, earning the fifth position in the 12th Asian Club Championship at Bahrain in January 1993.
Wapda were looking for a combination of results elsewhere in Kyrgyzstans capital of Bishkek to go in their favour and the hosts Dordoi-Dynamo obliged by beating Myanmars Kanbawza 2-1 to storm into the semi-finals. The result also helped Wapda who secured a berth in the last four as the best runners-up team among the three groups.
Dordoi and Wapda joined Group A winners and holders Tajikistans Regar-Tadaz and Group B champions Turkmenistan's Ashgabat in the four team finals to be played at an unannounced venue.
Group-B runner-up Abahani were forced out from the events semifinals on May 18 after Wapda put the B. League champions behind on goal difference. Wapda came from behind to crush Taiwan Power Company 3-1 in Kathmandus Dashrath Stadium to finish as Group A runners-up and increasing their chances of booking a semifinal place as the current best second-placed team. They toppled Dhaka's Abahani with agoal difference of plus-two against Abahani's plus-one.
On 14 June, Group-C was completed when second-placed Kanbawza failed to pressurise the Lahore-based team, getting only three points with goal counts of 5-5. The matches of top three teams in three groups were taken into consideration.
Wapda became the first Pakistani football club in the 42-year history of the Asian President's Cup to make it to the semis.
The AFC Presidents Cup is an annual international competition between domestic clubs sides of Asia from the countries that fall under the Asian Football Confederation. Since the tournament began in 2005, the number of teams has increased from 8 to 11.
