“Altyn Asyr” - “Khujand”: battled draw in the AFC Cup group stage
The football club Altyn Asyr, the current champion of Turkmenistan and the finalist of the Asian Football Confederation Cup - 2018, held the third round match of the group stage in the framework of the same tournament - the AFC Cup, but only already in 2019. The rival was the Khujand football team from Tajikistan, the match was held in the city of Khujand, at the stadium of the 20th anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Tajikistan. Tribunes of the arena can accommodate 25 thousand fans. The meeting was served by a judging panel from Saudi Arabia. It is noteworthy that until today these teams have never met each other. Tajik footballers took to the field in red, “Altyn Asyr” - in the traditional blue. Football players from Turkmenistan played according to the 4-4-2 scheme, i.e. with two clean attackers on the point of attack - Ashirov and Nurmuradov. In the course of the meeting, sharp moments arose at both gates, but the team from Turkmenistan mostly owned the game advantage. In the three most dangerous situations, the goal of “Altyn Asyr” was kept intact by the excellent game of the goalkeeper of Turkmenistan. In turn, our players had two fairly “one hundred percent” points, but they also failed to score. The changes made by the Altyn Asyr coaching staff did not help to reverse the course of the fight. At the 57th minute, the defender Batyrov was replaced, Annasahedov came out instead, and in the 65th and 75th minutes the attacking tandem of the Turkmen club was replaced. According to the received warnings, a small “advantage” is with “Altyn Asyr” - two yellow cards against one of the “Khujand” players. As a result, a goalless draw was recorded with an absolutely uncompromising character.
