A great performance gives the Title holder 3 important points with 3 masterful goals.

Beirut City witnessed a wonderful match yesterday between the titleholder Nejmeh and the rising team Olympic Beirut in a clash, which entertained every football fan in Lebanon, and proved to be the battle of heroes.  

Negative and positive:
The match in general was negative in its first half and positive to a great extent in its second. Olympic Beirut had the superior hand in the first half starting from the 10th minute and Nejmeh showed fashionable football in the second.

Olympic's lead and the turning point:
The second half started with an early lead for Olympic Beirut when  Mohammad Kassas scored a goal in the first minute of the second half but five minutes later, Yossuf Mohammad got a second yellow card and left the pitch and that was probably the turning point in the match.

Nejmeh woke up:
After Olympic's goal, Nejmeh's fans started supporting and cheering as if their team scored and Nejmeh's players were flaming with desire to score and to achieve something. And Nejmeh's Dynamo - Moussa Hujeij - played his best ever "half" which in turn moved the team to change the whole match in their favor.

 Goals...Goals...Goals:
On the 15th minute of the second half Abbas Atwi scored the equalizer with a great first-shot from a 35 meters range. Then, Jilberto added another goal for Nejemh on the 70th minute and he himself finished the match on the 77th minute with a wonderful play which started from the gifted young player Mohammad Ghaddar to Moussa Hujeij who in his turn played a clear ball for Jilberto who scored his second goal.

Olympic regained control:
The game took another turn with Nejmeh's third goal when Olympic Beirut regained their control but with no use. However Mohammad Kassas played great football although he didn't get any support from his teammates who didn't present any of their formal football style which entertained the fans in previous matches. 

Zizo Rules:
No doubt that Zizo's return to Nejmeh proved to be useful because he made great tactical substitutions against Olympic Beirut when he enrolled his attacking Trio; Mohammad Ghaddar, Jilberto and Said Aboushi. On the other side, Olympic's coach, Mohamad Al Sahel had some difficulties in finding the formula, which was able to face Nejmeh. Zizo with two wins in a row will be a great help for the team and the players themselves.

Competitive race:
The race for the championship is now on fire with Olympic still in the 1st position with 41 points, followed by Ahed - who dropped 3 valuable points by a 0-1 loss to Ansar - with 40 points. In the third postion, comes Nejmeh with 38 points and then Ansar with 35 points in the fourth place.

There is no doubt that the coming weeks will witness a football fever in Lebanon which will increase the matches' rating and that in turn will present a great football show to football fans.

Yesterday also witnessed great important matches with the following results:

- Ansar x Ahed [1-0] Ali Mousawi [18']
- Tadamoun x Sagesse [3-0] Korkein PK [44'], Khodor Najdi [70'], Hamlet [85']

Written by Mohamad Hallal
www.lebanese-football.com

May 11, 2003