Higher Education shock football favourites in UAE competition

Abu Dhabi: The Higher Education team achieved the biggest surprise of the football competition of the 16th Armed Forces Officers Club (AFOC) Ramadan Festival by beating favourites National Drilling Company 2-1 in the semi-finals of the men’s competition.

Othman Mohammad and Eslam Hussain scored for Higher Education to inflict a first defeat on NDC. The HE team will face Al Khalidiya in the final on Sunday night after they trounced Adam 3-1 in the other semi-final.

Esmail Khiyaki, Aziz Drou and Adil Hail scored for Al Khalidiya, while Mohammad Shahhat scored the losers’ consolation.

Diego Maradona, the Argentine football legend and former coach of Al Wasl, will be the guest of honour at the final and will present the trophies to the winners.

In the women’s competition, defending champions Thailand Team reached the final in style by beating Abu Dhabi Club (A) 3-0, while International Golden Group also reached the final in their debut after beating Abu Dhabi Club (B) by the same margin.

“We are happy with the great success achieved in both the men’s and women’s competitions this year,” Salah al Salloumi, a former footballer with Emirates and the Director of the Festival, said.

“All the teams were keen to bring highly-qualified players from the UAE and outside and the matches were competitive and exciting, which attracted large numbers of spectators, who added to the atmosphere. I am sure that all these foreign players will be pleased to come back again next year to take part in the AFOC Festival.”