Pakistan missed \u201cgolden opportunity\u201d to take lead in 67th-minute penalty
\nISLAMABAD
\nPakistan and Afghanistan played out a goalless draw in their third AFC Asian Cup 2027 Qualifier at Islamabad\u2019s Jinnah Stadium on Thursday.
\nThe Green Shirts began the game with intensity, mounting regular attacks, but were unable to breach Afghanistan\u2019s resilient defence in the first half. Afghanistan\u2019s solid defensive setup successfully kept Pakistan from converting their chances.
\nPakistan had a golden opportunity to take the lead in the 67th minute when they were awarded a penalty. However, Otis Khan failed to capitalise, leaving the scoreline unchanged.
\nDespite the disappointment over missed opportunities, fans applauded both teams for their spirited display in a hard-fought draw.
\nPakistan\u2019s campaign in Group E has had a challenging start, having suffered consecutive defeats against Syria and Myanmar.
\nIn their opening match on March 25, Pakistan went down 2-0 to Syria at the Prince Abdullah Bin Jalawi Stadium in Saudi Arabia.
\nDefender Ahmad Faqa opened the scoring in the 23rd minute, assisted by Amar Ramadan, and captain Omar Alsoma doubled the lead in the 56th minute.
\nDespite a resilient defensive effort, the men in green could not contain the experienced Syrian side.
\nThe green shirts\u2019 second match saw them lose 1-0 to Myanmar at the Thuwunna Stadium in Yangon on June 10.
\nThan Paing\u2019s precise free-kick in the 42nd minute proved decisive, as Pakistan struggled to find an equaliser despite late efforts, adopting a largely defensive approach against Myanmar\u2019s possession dominance.
\nFollowing back-to-back defeats and the draw against Afghanistan, Pakistan will now travel to Kuwait for their next Group E fixture against the same opponents on October 14.
\nThe top team from each group will earn a place in the AFC Asian Cup 2027, set to be held in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pakistan missed \u201cgolden opportunity\u201d to take lead in 67th-minute penalty ISLAMABAD Pakistan and Afghanistan played out a goalless draw in their third AFC Asian Cup 2027 Qualifier at Islamabad\u2019s Jinnah Stadium on Thursday. The Green Shirts began the game with intensity, mounting regular attacks, but were unable to breach Afghanistan\u2019s resilient defence in the first …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":87943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87927"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87944,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87927\/revisions\/87944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}