The Lebanese national football team began a new phase under Montenegrin coach Miodrag Radulovic with an important moral victory against Jordan, winning 2-1 in a friendly match held at the Rashid Karamé Municipal Stadium in Tripoli. The match was attended by the President of the Lebanese Football Federation, Engineer Hashim Haidar, and Secretary-General Jihad al-Shahif.
Lebanon employed a different strategy than in previous periods, as Radulovic relied on a 3-5-2 formation to ensure defensive solidity while also providing ample offensive support for the two forwards. He made several substitutions throughout the two halves to assess the performance of as many players as possible who had been in the camp for over a week. Notably, he had to make an unplanned substitution in the first half due to an injury to Nasar Nasar, and another in the second half after full-back Hussein Zain also sustained an injury.
The Jordanian team opened the scoring early, specifically in the third minute, capitalizing on a gap in the defense to net a goal through the historical top scorer for the "Nashama," Hamza Al-Dardour, who tapped in a cross from close range. Lebanon equalized after 20 minutes when captain Hassan Maatouk delivered a cross that deflected outside the area, which Mohammad Haidar quickly struck with a powerful shot into the right corner of the net, marking his first international goal since November 19, 2013, when he scored against Iran.
Haidar almost added a second goal a minute before halftime after intercepting the ball from the Jordanian defense and exchanged passes with Maatouk before shooting from a tight angle, but goalkeeper Abdullah Al-Fakhouri reacted quickly to deflect the ball away.
As the second half began, Maatouk nearly scored the go-ahead goal after breaking through the defense, going past the goalkeeper, but his shot from a difficult angle went over the bar. The Jordanian response came late, in the 77th minute, when Muhannad Abu Taha unleashed a powerful shot from inside the box with his left foot, but substitute goalkeeper Mustafa Matar excelled in parrying it to a corner.
Lebanon's winning goal came in the 93rd minute after Hassan "Soni" Saad was awarded a penalty, which was successfully converted by Nour Mansour to the right of the Jordanian goalkeeper.
The Lebanese lineup included goalkeeper Mehdi Khalil (Mustafa Matar, 46), and players Qassem Al-Zain, Nour Mansour, Maher Sabra (Hassan Shaeeto, 78), Hussein Zain (Daniel Lahoud, 65), Walid Shour (Felix Maliki, 46), Yahya Al-Hindi (Ali Tanish, 46), Mohammed Haidar (Mohammed Dahini, 65), Nasar Nasar (Alex Maliki, 34), Hassan Maatouk (Gabriel Beitar, 70), and Hilal Al-Halweh (Soni Saad, 70). The match was officiated by referee Maher Al-Ali, assisted by Bilal Al-Arifi and Ali Barakat, with Mohammad Haddad as the fourth official.
