Tractorsazi defender Mohamed Nosrati (left) looks to have tried all possible ways to stop Lekhwiya striker Sebastian Soria from scoring in their their AFC Champions League match yesterday.


By Joe Koraith/Doha


The quote said it all. “Today the Tractor was like a Ferrari.” That was what Tractorsazi Tabriz coach Antonio Oliveira said after his team emerged with a goalless draw against Qatari club Lekhwiya yesterday at the Adbullah bin Khalifa Stadium.
This Group C encounter of the AFC Champions League was billed to be a tough one for the Iranian club and which is why the draw elicited that response from Oliveira. Lekhwiya will feel robbed of three points considering that they dominated the match. And the biggest moment they will rue is the missed penalty chance in the 15th minute. Striker Sebastian Soria’s low shot was just wide off the target.
In the 29th minute Lekhwiya got another great chance after Vladimir Weiss’s free kick hit the post and the rebound fell kindly to Soria but his shot was high.
But Lekhwiya coach Eric Gerets said despite the lack of luck it was still a fair result since his team didn’t control the game enough. “We are not able to control the game in the first half. We knew how they would play but we gave them too much time, too much freedom to build play. That’s why they always had an extra man in the midfield. We were not able to get in the game in the right way,” said Gerets.
“We missed the penalty and had a few other chances but don’t forget that Tractor also had a few good chances to score a goal. At least we produced a better show in the second half. In the end we could have won it. But the result is correct in the end because we played against a good Iranian team,” he added.
The joy after the whistle was evident in the Iranian camp and the coach said that he was proud of the way his players executed the plan today.
“We have had a very good game. We had good organisation against a team that had a lot of ball possession and played an open game. In the first half we had a couple of chances. In the second half we weren’t that good but the players did well. Each player knew his role and stuck to it. I am very proud of my players,” said Oliveira.
“Before the match I had said that we had a small chance against a team like Lekhwiya which has many foreign players and is a strong team. But today they weren’t so strong and Tractor were able to get all their key points right. We have opened the doors for qualification with this draw,” he added.
For Lekhwiya,  this draw means that they will have to dig deep and go all out in their next match against Saudi Arabia’s Al Ittihad. “There’s a lot of extra pressure now. We have to win the next game. Even a draw will make qualification extremely difficult,” said Lekhwiya coach Eric Gerets
A missed penalty, a disallowed goal, a couple of really close chances and Lekhwiya must feel like Lady Luck was being cruel but coach Gerets chose to be practical.
“We know we have to play better. We have to be more organised when we do not have the ball. We cannot allow the opposition to create chances like we did today. And then we can score goals and win matches.”
Now for his players to put that into practice.