GHANEM AL HAJERI CROWNED SLOVAKIAN MŠK ŽILINA WITH THE TITLE OF HAZZA BIN ZAYED INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR TOURNAMENT
H.E. Ghanem Mubarak Al Hajeri, Chairman of Al Ain Club Football Company, crowned Slovak’s MŠK Žilina Football Team with the title of the 10th edition of Hazza Bin Zayed International Junior Football Tournament following winning Real Betis FC 2-1 in the final match held at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium. The ceremony was held in the presence of H.E. Sultan Rashid, Member of the Board of Directors of the Al Ain Club Football Company, Sports Director and Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Tournament, Captain Abdullah Ali, the Administrative Supervisor of the Football Academy and the Tournament Director and Captain Ali Khamis, Technical Director of the Academy and Chairman of the Tournament’s Technical Committee.
At the start of the awards ceremony, Al Hajeri honored the referees team, then he crowned MŠK Žilina Football Club with the trophy, gold medals and a $ 10,000 prize followed by Real Betis FC who were awarded the silver medals and a $ 5,000 prize. Al Hajeri also honored the winners of the individual awards and they were as follows: Real Betis player Fernando Rodrigo received the Tournament’s Best Player Award, his teammate Delgado Romero was awarded the Top Scorer Award, Slovak’s MŠK Žilina goalkeeper Lumair Belko was named the Tournament’s Best Goalkeeper while Everton FC won the Fair Play Award.
Back to the final match course of actions, it started so intense and Betis had a chance in the first minute to score through a strong shot sent by Lopez Jian but defenders were able to sent it out from the goal line. However, MŠK Žilina responded quickly through the Cesc duo, who slapped the ball to his mate Scirtell who faced the goalkeeper and sent a powerful shot but passed the left post. MŠK Žilina goalkeeper elegantly palmed off a shot from Delgado Joaquin in the 10th minute, and minutes later he was able to save his net from dangerous shots from Abraham Safidra and turned it over to a corner kick “21”. Real Betis goalkeeper was also able to send off Zilina’s striker Adrian Moises and bounced back to find Scirtell who sent it powerfully again but the goalkeeper was able to turn it not a corner kick “28” depriving Žilina to take the lead. The two teams exchanged mutual attacks the last minutes witnessed offensive pressure exerted by Real Betis and Slovak’s post denied Real Betis to score their first goal when Alejandro’s shot hit the post and bounced back to his teammate Rodriguez who fired a powerful shot but Žilina goalkeeper was in the right time and place to palm it off and sent it to a corner kick “35”. Delgado Romero header past Zilina’s post by a whisk in the last minute of the first half which ended in a goalless draw.
At the start of the second half, Zilina’s striker Marcel Novak threatened Betis with a header but it passed the post again. Žilina stepped up his attacks against Real Betis and earned two corner kicks. The pressure resulted in Žilina scoring their first goal through Marcel Novak in the 55th minute of the second half. It was a short time of joy for Žilina when Real Betis returned back and leveled the result by scoring a goal by Lozano Abraham in the 57th minute with a shot from inside the box. Zilina’s head coach had to make an emergency replacement due to the injury of the team’s goalkeeper Pico. By the last minutes of the match and in the 75th minute, Valdaslav Cicek scored Zilina’s second goal and to grant his team the title.
The match was managed by Ahmed Hassan Bilal, “Match Referee”, Ali Abdullah “First Assistant”, Ibrahim Al Jami “Second Assistant” and Abdullah Obeid Al Rumaithi “Fourth Official”.
