Agencies/Doha
Lekhwiya coach Michael Laudrup hailed the spirit of his team after seeing off their Qatari compatriots Al Sadd to reach the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League on Tuesday despite playing for almost an hour with only 10 men.
Ismail Mohamed scored seven minutes from time to earn Lekhwiya a 2-2 draw on the night and a 4-3 victory on aggregate as they booked their place in the quarter-finals of the tournament for the second time in three seasons.
“The match was very exciting from the two teams and it was an entertaining match,” said Lekhwiya’s Danish coach.
“We had a difficult situation in the first half with the red card that we got as we had to play with 10 men for a long period.
“However, we managed to get past all the difficult conditions and achieved our target of qualifying to the quarter-finals. The result reflects the good character of our team and I’m happy that the players had great determination to qualify.”
Youssef Msakni put Lekhwiya ahead after just 13 minutes but Ahmed Yasser’s sending off in the 34th minute for a second bookable offence was followed swiftly by an equaliser for Al Sadd when Brazilian striker Muriqui scored with a free kick.
Ali Asadalla then put Al Sadd in front in the 63rd minute and the game looked set to be headed for extra time till Mohamed struck to take Lekhwiya into the last eight, where they lost to eventual champions Guangzhou Evergrande in 2013.
“We put a lot of pressure on the front as we had only this solution to make a good comeback,” said Laudrup of his team’s win-at-all-costs approach in the later stages of the game.
“I want to congratulate the players for their excellent work and for the big achievement of qualifying to the quarter-finals.”
