Al Duhail head coach Hernan Crespo rued his side’s missed chances, calling for the players to be mentally stronger, after the Qatari club lost to Al Taawoun 1-2 in their opening match of the AFC Champions League at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium on Thursday night.
An early defensive mix-up allowed Edmilson Junior to take possession of the ball and fire into the top corner to give the Qatari side the lead inside seven minutes, but Leandre Tawamba restored parity for Taawoun within minutes with a fine lobbed effort before he set up Alvaro Medran’s late winner with a sublime backheel pass.
“I think we went into the match well and scored the goal,” said Crespo. “But we conceded the equaliser shortly after, and this affected the concentration of our players a bit, and we did not show the required reaction. We had many dangerous chances to score, especially in the second half, and we deserved to win, but a big competition like this does not tolerate mistakes, as the opponents took advantage of some of our mistakes and scored the winning goal at a crucial time.” The Argentine added.
Al Duhail need to make amends when they face group leaders Sepahan tomorrow, when another defeat could leave them staring down the barrel of a third consecutive group stage exit. “We are a big team with high-quality players who are definitely ready for the next match at a high level, but we need to focus more on the mental side than the physical side,” Crespo said.
In both managers’ debuts for their respective clubs, Crespo and Al Taawoun’s John van den Bron got a taste of Asian club football as well as a touch of what to expect of their squads, but the signs were good as both sides relentlessly battled it out for a winner. Van den Brom expressed his delight with the atmosphere at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium as his side came from behind to defeat.
“The atmosphere was wonderful during my first presence in Saudi Arabia with Al Taawoun,” said the Dutchman.
“I thank the fans who supported us greatly throughout this match. We have only two days to play the second match, during which we will also strive to win.
“I told the players before the start of the match that we must be positive, and that each player needs to perform his tasks as required in order to achieve a positive result, and this is what the players did during the match and therefore we got three very important points”.
The win is Al Taawoun’s third against Al Duhail in as many clashes, having defeated their opponents 1-0 and 2-0 in 2020 to pip them to the knockout stage, but Van den Brom dismissed talk of Round-of-16 progression at this stage.
“I don’t want to talk about the chances of qualifying for the next round now because we are still at the beginning, although the victory in the first round is important and it came against a strong team and a strong candidate to compete strongly to qualify from this group”.