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Hosts Qatar claim final gold medal

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DOHA, Qatar -- Host nation Qatar won the 428th and final gold medal of the 15th Asian Games when they beat Iraq 1-0 in a scrappy men's football final on Friday.

Defender Bilal Rajab headed home after 63 minutes to win his country a ninth gold at the sports extravaganza and send a majority of the 12,000 or so supporters in the Al-Sadd stadium into a frenzy.

"We are very happy to give this gold to everybody, to the people of Qatar and the Emir," said substitute midfielder Younes Rahmati. "We worked very hard for this. We trained very hard and this is the reward."

Iraq, kicked out of the Asian Games after the invasion of Kuwait and returning for the first time since 1986, were hoping for a first gold medal at the Games since they won the football title in 1982, to bring together their war-ravaged country.

They enjoyed more than their fair share of the ball but, with just a lone striker up front, they never threatened the Qatar goal and looked delighted to win the silver.

"Football is the only thing that has united the Iraqi people," said Iraq coach Yahya Manhel. "They were waiting for the gold, it would have made them happy. But we are still happy that it went to another Arab country."

After two weeks of disappointing crowds, Qataris turned out in force for the football final and the stadium was filling up with white-robed locals two hours before kick-off.

Iraq started confidently in the first half, combining neatly in midfield and retaining possession well but Mostafa Abd Alla was outnumbered up front and most of their attacks petered out long before they reached Qatar's penalty area.

Qatar's skilful midfielders made frequent forays into the Iraq half but it was from set pieces that they looked most dangerous with Uruguay-born Sebastian hitting the bar with a glancing header from a corner in the eighth minute.

After 25 minutes, some neat dribbling saw Khalfan Al Khalfan skip past three defenders but his shot from the edge of the six-yard box came off the legs of Iraqi goalkeeper Mohammed Khadum.

The deadlock was broken eight minutes into the second half when Majdi Siddiq's corner was headed on by Hussain Abdulrahman. Khadum got a touch but Rajab was on hand to head it into the net.

Sebastian put the ball in the net again a minute later but was offside and the striker hit the side netting after an hour as the hosts threatened to run riot.

Always the more adventurous of the two sides, Qatar never looked like relinquishing their lead once they had it and comfortably held on to claim their first Asian Games football title.

"The pressure of the occasion was too much on the players at the beginning and that's why they weren't really in control," said Qatar's Bosnian coach Dzemaludin Musovic. "They played much better in the second half."

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