Iraqi Premier League: Kurdistan Region’s Erbil secures 3-0 win

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Erbil Sports Club secured a 3-0 victory on Wednesday against opponents Al-Semawah in the Iraqi Premier League.

Mohammed Khalid Jaffal opened the scoring in the first half with a 28th-minute strike to give his team a 1-0 half-time lead.  

Jaffal doubled the Kurdistan Region club’s lead in the second half after converting his 52nd-minute penalty.

Aso Rustam, who won the penalty for the second goal, made it 3-0 for Erbil in the 87th minute, scoring his first of the season.

“We earned these three points with determination and effort from the entire team,” he told Kurdistan 24 after the game.

“I am delighted with scoring my first goal of the season, and I hope we can continue to make our fans proud.”

The win moves Erbil (9-9-11) temporarily to 11th spot in the Iraqi Premier League.

The Kurdish club’s next match is at home to Al-Hudod (7-13-9) on June 2.

One of the league’s most successful football clubs, Erbil withdrew from Iraq’s Premier League during the 2016-17 season due to financial issues.

They have been crowned Iraqi Premier League champions four times, most recently in the 2011-12 season, when they only lost one match.

Erbil is also the first club from the Iraqi league to qualify for continental club tournaments. In 2008, they qualified for the Asian Champions League but failed to progress from the group stage.

However, in Asia’s second-tier continental tournament, the AFC Cup, Erbil have finished runners-up on two occasions, in 2012 and 2014.  

(Additional reporting by Darbaz Ahmed)