Al-Karkh played out a 2:2 draw with Al-Karraba in the Iraqi League's Regular Season round four on Friday evening. The result leaves the hosts seventh in the table while their visitors remain in seventeenth place. Both sides had already played thirty-eight and thirty-seven matches respectively before this fixture.
A. Aiad opened the scoring for Al-Karkh in the thirty-seventh minute, and here's the thing about early goals — they tend to set the tone. Diego Carioca doubled the hosts' advantage just before half-time, punishing them from a penalty in the forty-fifth minute plus three. Al-Karkh looked comfortable by then, leading 2:0 at the interval.
The momentum shifted after the break. I. Tandia pulled one back for Al-Karraba in the sixty-fifth minute, and the stadium began to feel different. M. Soro Nanga equalised nine minutes into stoppage time, rescuing a point for his side. To be fair, the visitors never stopped pressing.
Al-Karraba registered more attacks with sixty-two compared to fifty, yet Al-Karkh were more clinical with six shots on target against three. Both teams held fifty per cent possession, and the shots off target were two for the hosts versus five for the visitors. The yellow cards told another story: four for Al-Karkh against one for Al-Karraba.
The draw extends Al-Karkh's winless run to four matches across all competitions. They had lost 0:1 to Erbil, 0:1 to Al-Joulan, and 0:2 to Naft in their previous outings. Al-Karraba's recent form shows a pattern of draws and defeats, with only one win in their last five games against Duhok. Sixty points from thirty-eight matches keeps Al-Karkh in mid-table, while thirty-eight points from thirty-seven games leaves Al-Karraba struggling near the bottom.