Gawadar cruises into Leisure Leagues National finals

Karachi: Gawadar football team cruised into Leisure Leagues National Championship after winning Balochistan Regional Leisure Leagues Championship, which was recently held in Quetta.

Gawadar won the final game against host Quetta by 3-1 score at Al-Muntazir Futsal ground in Quetta.

Gawadar became the second team to qualify for the Leisure Leagues National finals. Earlier, Karachi’s Abdul FC qualified for the national finals from Sindh region. A total of four teams from each of the four provinces will compete in the national finals, which will be held in Karachi on July 28.

The winner of the national championship will earn a prized ticket to Greece where the team will get a chance to represent Pakistan in the second edition of the Socca World Cup. The tournament will be held in Crete, Greece from October 12 to 20. Last year, Lahore’s ICAW represented Pakistan in the inaugural edition, which was hosted by Portugal in Lisbon.

Earlier, a total of 20 teams, equally divided into five groups, played pre-qualifiers of the Balochistan Championship. One team of each group namely Quetta, Sibbi, Kuchlak, Kalat and Gawadar qualified for second qualifiers before a pre-final and final.

Prior to the final game, where Quetta got a direct berth, Gawadar thrashed Sibbi 7-3 while Kuchlak overcame Kalat 2-1. In an exciting pre-final, Gawadar defeated Kuchlak 2-1 before eventually beating Quetta 3-1 in the final to claim the Balochistan Championship title.