Al-Swehli writes history at Cairo Stadium and is crowned champion of the Libyan Premier League for the first time
Libya's Al-Swehli Club was crowned the Libyan Premier League title for the first time in its history, after its thrilling victory over Al-Nasr Club on penalties, in the marathon final match hosted by Cairo International Stadium in the Egyptian capital on Saturday evening.
The representative of the city of Misrata succeeded in writing his name in letters of gold in the list of clubs crowned with the historic championship, after a match charged with excitement and clubliness that extended until the last moments, to unleash great and hysterical joys among the club's wide fans who have been waiting for this historic moment for many decades.
The first half of the football dialogue was characterized by a negative draw between the two teams, despite the clear field and relative advantage in favor of Al-Swehli players, who imposed their attacking style and created a number of dangerous chances, but they lacked offensive efficiency and the final touch in front of Al-Nasr's net.
The exciting scene changed during the first twenty minutes of the second half, as the match referee awarded a penalty in favor of Al-Swehli after returning to the video assistant referee (VAR) technology, which the Tunisian professional Ayoub Ayad successfully addressed, depositing the ball in the net to announce his team's progress in the 65th minute, and before the match breathed its last, Al-Nasr snatched the precious equalizer in the same way through a penalty kick that was accurately shot by the player Yahya Al-Zlaitani, returning the match to zero points.
Decisive Kicks
The penalty kicks smiled for Al-Swehli Club after the two teams resorted to them to break the exciting positive tie, as Al-Swehli players showed great steadfastness by their success in scoring 4 kicks, in exchange for a single kick wasted by the Abbasi player.
On the other hand, Al-Nasr players had a difficult night as they missed two crucial kicks through Rizk and Eto'o, and the football ceremony ended with Al-Swehli being declared the champion of this season's edition.
Under this achievement, Al-Swehli will compete in the African Champions League next season as a representative of Libyan football, along with runners-up Al-Nasr Club, which in turn secured the second continental seat.
Behind the scenes of the "Six" system and the crossing to Africa
This unprecedented crowning of Al-Swehli Club comes at the end of an exceptional and difficult football season, in which the Libyan Football Federation adopted a special and extensive system that included in its first phase 36 teams that were distributed into groups, before 12 of them qualified for the decisive stage of the "Six League", whose stadiums were set up outside the country, specifically in Egypt, to provide the utmost sports justice and integrity.
This tournament acquires strategic and technical dimensions that are very important for the Misrata region, as it breaks the monopoly of the major traditional clubs in the capital Benghazi and Tripoli, and gives the team a huge moral and financial boost, and the expected participation in the African Champions League puts the management of Al-Swehli in front of a high-level organizational and competitive merit that requires strengthening the ranks and organizing quality foreign camps, to ensure an honorable representation of Libyan football and confirm its merit in the most expensive local title.