Uzbekistan in semi-finals: AAG football

Uzbekistan defeated Burkina Faso 1-0 while Zimbabwe held a fighting Iran to a 1-1 draw in Group matches in the football competition of the Afro Asian Games in Hyderabad on Saturday.

With this victory Uzbekistan booked a place in the semi-finals while Burkina Faso, who tasted their second straight defeat, are out of contention.

Zimbabwe, with a victory and a draw, stand a better chance of booking the other semi-final berth.

For Uzbekistan, captain Yaroslav scored the lone goal in the 66th minute off a pass from striker Alexander Geynrikh after both the teams failed to find the target in the first-half.

Burkina Faso, in fact, played better, but had themselves to blame as they missed several chances, two of them very easy.

In the other match, Zimbabwe got off to a flying start, scoring in the very first minute. Edmore Mashiri took a shot at goal but Iran custodian Mosoud failed to hold on to the ball. An alert Ronaldo Badza pounced on the opportunity to give his team the lead.

Iran, however, recovered soon and dominated the proceedings in the latter part of the match and in the 56th minute Seyed Jalal scored the equalizer through a penalty.

Busan Asian Games champions Iran, who have come with their junior team, will now have to look for an outside chance to reach the knock-out stage as they had lost their opening match against Uzbekistan.

They have to defeat Burkina Faso in their last league engagement on Monday by a huge margin and then expect Uzbekistan to win against Zimbabwe to qualify on a better goal average.