Well first things first allow us to clarify that this was the match billed as “Palestine vs. Chechnya”. We sometimes make mistakes on this blog but that is only because we get our information second hand from Palestinian and Arab media outlets which are sometimes inaccurate when reporting sports stories. The game kicked off with celebrations in front of a nearly fully stadium, and Fadi Lafi captained the side in the absence of the injured Ahmed Keshkesh, Palestine started off brightly and you could see some of the Terek players were taken aback, in the first 10 minutes Palestine went close through Fahed Attal and Khadr Yousef- whose multiple touches really spoiled what seemed to be a golden chance. Terek whose quality was evident hit the first goal after the Palestinian defence failed to deal with a goalmouth scramble. Terek then doubled their lead when the Romanian international Florentin Petre hit an absolute beauty past Mohammed Shbair.
Just before halftime, Palestine had a Fahed Attal goal ruled out for offside and Terek saw one of their players sent off for a second bookable offense. As a result, the second half saw a more open encounter Palestine keeping the ball well and boosted by the involvement of Majed Abusidu and Shareef Adnan on the wings were constantly threatening the Terek Grozny goal. Ismail Al-Amour hit one back after some heads up play just after the whistle. Fahed Attal scored a beauty after a quickly taken free kick.
I will post highlights, pictures, and more analysis when I get the chance.
