Yemen Monitor/Newsroom:
The Yemeni youth national team lost their first friendly match against their Australian counterparts 3-5, as part of their overseas training camp in preparation for the 2025 AFC U-17 Asian Cup finals in Saudi Arabia.
The youth team took the lead with the first goal through their striker Karim Hamdi in the second minute, but the Australian team came back into the match by scoring two goals in the 34th and 41st minutes, ending the first half 2-1.
In the second half, the Australian team capitalized on some individual errors and scored three goals in the 48th, 53rd, and 57th minutes. After that, the youth team coach, Samer Fadl, made substitutions that changed the course of the match, and Mohammed Wahib and Abdullah Mohammed “Khalifa” were able to score the team’s second and third goals from two penalty kicks in the 76th and 91st minutes.
The President of the Yemeni Football Association, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Essi, contacted the team delegation, stressing the importance of such strong matches to benefit technically from them and work on avoiding mistakes in the final stages of the Asian Championship.
