ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia beat Pakistan 3-0 at the Jinnah Football Stadium in Islamabad on Thursday, as the two sides locked horns in the second round of the FIFA World Cup qualifying matches of Group G.
Saudi Arabia’s Firas Tariq Nasser Al-Buraikan dealt Pakistan an early blow in the 26th minute, netting the first goal of the match. Fifteen minutes later, the Saudi footballer netted another one, giving the visitors a 2-0 edge over the hosts.
Pakistan attempted to regroup and mount a comeback in the second half with a couple of attacks. However, their efforts were thwarted when Saudi Arabia’s Musab Fahd Al-Juwayr netted the third goal of the match in the 51st minute of the match.
“Our last home game of the FIFA WCQ ends in defeat,” the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) wrote on social media platform X.
Pakistan are bottom-placed at Group G of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers. The South Asian team lost to Saudi football team 4-0 in the first leg of the qualifying matches when they faced off in Al Ahsa.
The green shirts will face Tajikistan on June 11 in Dushanbe in what will be their final round 2 away fixture.
Apart from Saudi Arabia, the other two teams with Pakistan in Group G are Jordan and Tajikistan. In the second round of the qualifiers, a total of 36 football squads have been split into nine groups with four teams each. The winners and runners-up from each group would go through to the third round.
Pakistan were already out of the race to qualify for the third round of the FIFA World Cup qualifying matches after losing four matches on the trot.
