Abu Dhabi: Hosts UAE trounced Kuwait 7-0 on Wednesday night to reach the semifinals of the 3rd West Asian Football Federation Women Football Championship in style.
The UAE won both their matches in the preliminary round and collected full points to face Bahrain, the runners up of Group B tonight in the semifinal.
Bahrain were surprise semifinalists, having won promotion after beating favourites Iran, the runners up of the last two versions of the tournament, before the Iranians fell down to reigning champions Jordan 4-0 on Wednesday to exit from the competition.
Jordan will meet Palestine in the first semifinal today, which will kick off at 4:15pm followed by UAE vs Bahrain at 6:45pm.
Jordan took complete command in their match against Iran. Their professional striker Stephanie Al Inbar, who plays in Denmark, put them ahead in the 39th minute and Shahinaz Jibreel added the second in the last minute of the first half.
Iran started the second half pressing for a goal but Jordan went further ahead when Yasmeen Khair scored her team's third goal in the 70th minute before Farah Al Azab sealing the result from the penalty spot in the 75th minute.
In the second match, Kuwait applied a total defensive strategy to avoid another humiliating defeat after they lost their opener against Palestine 17-0, but they surrendered after 20 minutes when UAE captain Jalila Al Nuaimie put the hosts ahead.
The goal broke the resistance of Kuwait and Fatima Bint Mubarak added the second goal in the 29th minute and added the third eight minutes later.
