APL

The east zone representatives, Toofan Harirod, battled Simorgh Alborz today, September 21, 2017 in the Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) stadium. This game was the eight 2017 Afghan Premier League (APL) group stage match. After an hour of end-to-end football, the match ended with a 1-1 draw. 

Toofan Harirod was desperately in need of a win to increase their sealed points, yet, with this draw they will have only one point in group “B” whereas today’s opponents, Simorgh Alborz saved one additional point and made it four points in total.

Qais Rahimi, the defender, put Simorgh ahead shortly after they kicked-off the pitch on five minutes to mark their superiority and talent. His header was accurate enough to ripple the net of Toofan and boost his team’s victory hope. 

Toofan Harirod responded to the opener goal on 18 minutes when Ghulam Reza Yaqubi capitalized the well-planned strike and made it a 1-1 draw. All other attempts by both sides were either deterred or went wide in the first-half. 

The tempo was slow and the game lacked any real spark in the second-half until 71 minutes when Simorgh was awarded with a penalty-kick but it stunningly was denied by Toofan’s goalie, Faisal Hamidi. 

Neither team was able to change the locked 1-1 draw as the second-half continued. Qais Rahimi of Simorgh Alborz received the first red card of sixth season.  

The game possession is equal, 50 percent, for each team.  Rahmatullah Khair Khah of Toofan won the Man of the Match Award. 

Follow APL YouTube page (www.youtube.com/afghanpremierleague) for the full match and highlights. Like APL Instagram (Afghanpremierleague.official) for more updated photos of the teams. Read more about the coming events on (www.afghanpremierleague.com).