ALL FOR THE BALL: Action from the AFC Champions League match between Qatar’s Al Gharafa and Saudi Arabia’s Al Shabab at the Gharafa Stadium yesterday. PICTURE: Anas al-Samaraee
Agencies/Doha
Al Gharafa and El Jaish both failed to make the most of home conditions to concede the advantage to their rivals in the Asian Champions League round of 16 first leg matches in Doha yesterday.
While Al Gharafa crashed to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Saudi Arabia’s Al Shabab, El Jaish were held 1-1 by last year’s runners-up Al Ahli, also of Saudi Arabia.
Nasser al-Shamrani struck seven minutes from time as Al Shabab came back from a goal down to hand Al Gharafa a 2-1 defeat.
Saudi international al-Shamrani scored with a confident finish after Sebastian Tagliabue had levelled the scores for Al Shabab following Mark Bresciano’s opener for the home side three minutes prior to the half-time interval.
The two teams will meet in the second leg in Riyadh next week with the Saudi champions holding the lead as well as the advantage of two away goals.
“We got a positive result because we went into the match with a clear strategy which was to get a positive result before the second leg in Riyadh,” said Al Shabab coach Michel Preud-homme.
“The players put on a good performance tonight and managed to get an important win. We conceded a goal in the first half which came due to confusion in defence and lack of good coverage.
“The result should not fool us because there is still another match and we haven’t qualified yet.”
Al Gharafa started the game in impressive fashion, with Alex (Alex Raphael Meschini) sending his fourth minute header just wide of Waleed Abdullah’s goal while, four minutes later, a cross-cum-shot from Nene (Anderson Luiz de Carvalho) flew agonisingly between the target and the late run of Alex.
Al Shabab managed to weather that early storm and, as the half wore on, Preud’homme’s side established a foothold, with Marcelo Camacho shooting just wide eight minutes before the break when referee Kim Jong-hyeok awarded the Saudis a free kick after goalkeeper Qasem Burhan was judged to have held on to the ball beyond the regulation six seconds.
Four minutes later, Camacho again tried his luck, but Burhan was on hand on this occasion to keep his effort out.
Less than a minute later, however, Al Gharafa were in front. Djibril Cisse headed the ball across goal and Bresciano pushed his shot over the line, despite the vain attempt by Naif Al Qadi to clear to safety.
Ten minutes after the restart, however, Al Shabab were back on level terms when Tagliabue – signed at the end of last season from Al Ettifaq after impressing in the AFC Cup – headed the ball down to Fernando Menegazzo, whose return pass resulted in the Argentinian curling the ball beyond Burhan and into the far corner of the net.
Meanwhile, captain Anderson came to El Jaish’s rescue as the AFC Champions League debutants denied 2012 finalists Al Ahli a first-leg advantage as Tuesday’s last 16 tie ended 1-1 following an entertaining contest at Al Rayyan Stadium.
Motaz alMosa’s header in first-half stoppage time had seemingly put unbeaten Group C winners Al Ahli in pole position for a return to the quarter-finals ahead of next week’s return fixture in Jeddah.
But Anderson (Anderson Vieira Martins) capitalised on a defensive mistake from Al Ahli to level the tie for the Group A runners-up, who avoided what would have been only a second defeat of their maiden continental campaign.
“Al Ahli were the better side tonight but we managed to get a good result,” said El Jaish coach Razvan Lucescu.
“We produced with two different performances in the match and this affected us as Al Ahli controlled the match and managed to create many chances.
“We lost the ball easily in the first half and we didn’t build the attack quickly and Al Ahli’s goal put more pressure on us while in the second half we changed the formation and we managed to score the equaliser.
“The second leg will be very hard but we hold onto our chance.”
Al Ahli’s chances of claiming a first-leg advantage were dealt a blow after 20 minutes as Oman international striker Amad Al Hosni was forced off with an injury to be eventually replaced by Bader Al Khamees.
But that did not stop the visitors creating the first meaningful chance of the contest soon after as Bruno Cesar skipped past two challenges before darting into the El Jaish penalty area only for goalkeeper Ahmed Sofyan to race off his line to save bravely at the feet of the Brazilian midfielder.
Al Ahli continued to look the more likely to break the deadlock and El Jaish goalkeeper Sofyan had to be on his toes again five minutes before half-time to push a low drive from Cesar around the post.