Qatar Advance with Perfect Record

Kuwait City, December 14 (QNA) - Qatar maintained their 100% record in the West Zone qualifiers for the 2012 AFC Futsal Championship with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Group A hosts Kuwait on Tuesday. With both teams having already assured themselves of a place in the final four the only issue that remained to be settled was who would top the table and face Group B runners-up Lebanon and who would take on the Group B winners Iraq. Kuwait went into the match at the Al Qadsia Futsal Stadium trailing the table-topping Qataris by two points and took the early initiative in their quest to usurp their Gulf neighbours when Abdulrahman Al Taweel put the home side one up with eight minutes played. The Kuwaitis held the slender advantage until four minutes into the second period when Ahmed Raja equalised before Mohammed Al Eissaei netted what transpired to be Qatar's winner on the half-hour mark to set up a meeting with Lebanon in Thursday's semi-finals. In the earlier match at the same venue, Syria rounded off their campaign with an emphatic 15-4 win over Palestine. (QNA)