(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The Boss exit despite beating Al Hilal by odd goal in three in AFC Champions
Dubai: Ten-man Al Ain beat Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal 2-1 in the second leg of the AFC Champions League semifinals at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain City on Tuesday. But the narrow victory of the UAE’s representatives was short of qualifying them to the finals of the continental competition and they had to bow out after suffering a 0-3 defeat in the first leg in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
Al Ain Omar Abdul Rahman tries to dribble past a host of Al Hilal players during their AFC Champions League semifinals clash at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain City on Tuesday. — KT photo by Nezar Balout
Al Ain players mounted pressure on their rivals and the impressive start of the Purple squad paid off in the 10th minute of the first half when midfielder Lee Myung-Joo got airborne to deftly head home a lovely cross from their playmaker Omer Abdul Rahman.
The early 1-0 advantage ignited the players’ believe to at least level their 0-3 away defeat at the King Fahad Stadium a couple of weeks ago. Al Ain scoring machine Gyan Asamoah came close to doubling the score on two occasions but his headers were brilliantly saved by the acrobatic Saudi keeper. Towards the 40th minute substitute Nawaf Al Abid was about to spoil Al Ain’s party but he missed the easy scoring opportunity on the goal line.
However backed with their enthusiastic supporters who packed the venue since early in the afternoon Al Ain players started the second half with increasing confidence that there was more to come from them as they have improved and came closer to their best.
But soon the Saudis began to show up and led some courageous counterattacks thanks to the hard work of substitute Nawaf Al Abed who began to operate from the centre of the field which put Al Ain defenders under increasing pressure.
Al Ain’s coach Zalatko Dalic made two substitutes after the break to underline his aggressive intentions by sending in attacking midfielders Ibrahima Diaky and Mohammed Abdul Rahman to replace Ahmed Barman and Fawzy Faiz.
The forward players began to fire on all cylinders thanks to the fast attacks from Kembo and Miroslav on the flanks with the only spearhead Gyan well deployed inside Al Hilal dangerous zone.
Al Ain continued to dominate and dictated the pace of the match and Gyan’s effort to strike at the hour mark from Amory’s cross went high above the crossbar.
But Al Ain’s move to make things good received a dent when Nasser Al Shamrani collected the ball from behind Al Ain defenders to slot in the equaliser and end the dreams of their opponents as they were required to score four goals in 20 minutes. Therefore it was naturally for Al Ain players to feel anxious and the immediate result a yellow card for Mirsolav followed with a red card in the face of Gyan in the 70th minute on tough tackling. The African-import needlessly attacked Al Hilal midfielder Salman Al Faraj from the back.
Meanwhile Kembo scored the second goal for Al Ain in the 77th minute with the assist of Omer Abdul Rahman.
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