Saudi Arabia won the West Asian Football Federation U-23 Championship for the first time after defeating Qatar 3-1 in the final of the competition at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah on Tuesday night.
Saudi took a two-goal lead in the first 20 minutes thanks to goals from Ahmed Al-Ghamdi and Saad Al-Nasser.
Qatar hit back four minutes into the second half with a penalty from Diyab Taha to half the deficit, but Musab Al-Juwayr added Saudi’s third after 67 minutes to calm his side’s nerves.
Saudi had reached the final after beating Oman 2-1 in Saturday’s semi-final, while Qatar had confirmed their place in the showpiece with a 6-5 penalty shootout win over Syria after the match had finished 1-1.
Syria beat Oman 1-0 earlier on Tuesday to take third place in the tournament, while on Sunday Bahrain beat Lebanon by the same score in the play-off between the fifth and sixth-placed teams.
