Ten-man Palestine fought back to force a 2-2 draw with Kuwait in their AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to 26 Group B match at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium on Tuesday.
Yousef al-Sulaiman’s double looked to have secured Kuwait the points but Zeid Qunbar equalised in time added on at the end of the second half for Palestine to take a share of the points.
Head coach Juan Antonio Pizzi’s plans for Kuwait suffered an early setback as defender Fahad al-Hajeri suffered an injury after only eight minutes and had to be replaced by Hamad al-Harbi.
With Kuwait still adjusting to the change, Palestine nearly capitalised with Wessam Abouli’s quick turn and fierce shot two minutes later needing a stop from goalkeeper Sulaiman Abdulghafoor.
Kuwait regained their composure and nearly went ahead in the 19th minute after great work from Yosef al-Shammari on the right created the opportunity for Salman Mohammed to back-heel towards goal but Musab Battat got in the way of the attempt.
Kuwait kept pressing and were awarded a spot-kick in the 31st minute after Ameed Mahajneh was brought down by Moaath al-Enezi, with Yousef al-Sulaiman coolly tucking home.
Palestine, however, were awarded a penalty of their own for Ahmad al-Dhefiri’s challenge on Abouli, with the forward dusting himself off to put away the spot-kick in the 41st minute. Head coach Makram Daboub made changes to his Palestine side for the second half, sending on Oday Dabbagh and Tamer Seyam only to then see his side go down to 10 men in the 55th minute after Camilio Saldana was shown a second yellow card.
Kuwait capitalised on their numerical advantage to go ahead with 10 minutes left to play when al-Sulaiman nudged home past Palestine custodian Rami Hamada from a delightful Sami al-Sanea cross. But Palestine fought back to snatch a draw when Qunbar nodded in from close range in the third minute of added time.