The Football Championship of Turkmenistan ended: the bronze medalist became known
On December 20, the final, 28th round of the Turkmenistan Football Championship ended with four matches.
The winner of the tournament was "Akhal", which won the first championship in its history three rounds before the end of the championship. Mergen Orazov's players have 73 points, as well as the right to compete in the 2023 AFC Champions League group stage.
In the second position, the ex-champion is Ashgabat's Altyn Asyr. The “Svyazistov” team finished the tournament with 61 points.
However, the last round was supposed to be the answer to the main question of the fans: who will become the owner of the bronze medals, and, therefore, will have the opportunity to represent Turkmenistan in the AFC Cup-2023 - the second most important Asian club tournament - Mary's "Merv" or Ashgabat's "Kopetdag", having 43 and 42 in their assets before the start of the final stage points, respectively.
Since the champion and the winner of the Cup of Turkmenistan was the same team – "Akhal", the right to represent Turkmenistan in the AFC Cup-2023, in addition to the vice-champion ("Altyn Asyr") gets the bronze medalist of the national championship.
"Kopetdag", in order to win bronze, had to win over today's opponent - Mary's "Energetik" (8th place, 15 points). The club of the Ministry of Internal Affairs coped with its task, easily dealt with the outsider of the tournament and beat him with a score of 0: 2.
There was only one thing left - to wait for a misfire from the Mary team, which went to visit the Turkmenbashi "Shagadam" (5th place, 35 points). However, Merv decided not to miss the chance to participate in the Asian Cup-2023. The players of the Mary club won a strong-willed victory over Primorye with a score of 2: 1, becoming the owners of bronze medals and a coveted ticket to the Asian Cup - 2023.
In other matches of the final stage, "Akhal" beat "Ashgabat" (6th place, 30 points) - 4: 1, and "Nebichi" (7th place, 17 points) lost to "Altyn Asyr" with a crushing score of 3: 0.
Didar Durdyev, who scored 27 goals, was recognized as the best scorer of the championship. On the second line in the list of snipers is the football player of "Merv" Alibek Abdyrakhmanov, who distinguished himself 21 times. Kopetdag player Begench Akmammedov closes the top three with 19 goals.
Artur PETROSYANTS
