Action from the Pakistan Army-Ratnam match at Lahore on Thursday. Photo by: AFC/Stanley Chou

LAHORE: Pakistan Army came from behind to hold Ratnam Sports Club of Sri Lanka to a 3-3 draw with an impressive performance in the inaugural match of the AFC President's Cup here at the Punjab Stadium on Thursday night.

Trailing 3-1, Pakistan Army fought back in the fag end of the first half to bring the score to 2-3 and later stunned Ratnam with a dominant game throughout the remaining 45 minutes to earn a point.

Ediribandanage Channa opened the scoring for his team in the 10th minute with a header followed by the second goal through their captain Ratnam’s captain Mohamed Rawme three minutes later.

The real stunner was the first one that came from Ratnam Sports Club forward Channa whose header landed right past the Pakistan Army goalie Jaffer Khan.

Pakistan Army were down by two goals, which was enough to give them a wake-up call. And left winger Umar Draz kicked the ball straight from the left to the right end of the Ratnam goal to give his team hopes of staying in the game. Things turned tough for Pakistan Army when Kasun Jayasuriya brought the third goal for Ratnam to extend the lead to 3-1 but the extra three minutes in the first session saw Faheem Riaz, who had earlier missed a number of sitters, converted the second goal.

In the second half, Pakistan Army unleashed several attacks but failed to find the net. And despite several tries, luck did not come their way. But luck was not only against Pakistan Army, the Ratnam players too missed a number of chances and that was also accepted by their coach Packeer Ali. "The team played very well but at times my players played bad and their missed chances landed us in trouble. Anyhow it's the first match at this pitch and we will get used to it in the coming games to give better results," said Pakeer.

Pakistan Army Manager Shafqat Mahmood was pleased with the draw. "The credit goes to the coaches and the players. They were at one time two goals down and they came back in the game despite a heavy outfield which was exhausting for both the teams," he said and added that they would surely surprise the other participating teams.