Dubai: Al Ahli coach Cosmin Olaroiu praised the manner in which his side came from behind three times to hold their Saudi Arabian namesakes Al Ahli Jeddah 3-3 at home in their Asian Champions League opener on Wednesday.
Esmail Al Hammadi and Ahmad Khalil cancelled out efforts from Osvaldo and Hussain Al Moqahwi in the first half, before Al Hammadi defied the odds to cancel out Taiseer Al Jassem’s second-half strike, despite the fact the hosts were a man down.
Luiz Jimenez was sent off with 15 minutes to spare for a tackle from behind on Osvaldo and Majed Nasser gifted the visitors their first and third efforts with sloppy goalkeeping, allowing the first to trickle into his goal after scuffing a back pass after two minutes. But Olaroiu was nevertheless happy with his side’s resilience and said the result demonstrated a fresh start on the continent after having struggled domestically.
“We practically scored two goals against ourselves with the first and third but we showed character to create opportunities to come back from three goals even after going a man down,” said the Romanian.
“The opening goal was a huge mistake but we scored three goals for each of the league games in which we didn’t score before this and should have had a fourth to win the match.
“If we keep playing like this in the Asian Champions League, we will be much different [to our Arabian Gulf League form]. I know we are motivated for this competition.”
Al Ahli Jeddah’s Christian Gross, who led English Premier League Tottenham Hotspur for a disastrous season in the mid-1990s, said he was happy with the result despite his side having continually surrendered the lead.
“We had great determination to win the match and had a great gift in the first half, but we went into the attack and this cost us three goals,” said the Swiss. “We didn’t have much space from the hosts so we have to be satisfied with the result.
“Getting one point was good because this was the first time that we played with such a formation and hopefully we will get better results in upcoming matches.”
Al Ahli Dubai’s opening draw followed Al Ain’s goalless group opener at home to Saudi Arabia’s Al Shabab on Tuesday, leaving the UAE’s only two participating teams mid-table with a point each after their opening games.
Meanwhile, in the GCC Champions League, Al Nasr beat Kuwait’s Al Kazma 2-1 at home on Tuesday with Pablo Hernandez and Ebrahima Toure putting the home side ahead before a late consolation from Yousuf Al Salman.
Al Shabab Dubai also won 3-0 at home to Qatar’s Al Arabi on Wednesday after Edgar Bruno’s brace followed Henrique Luvannor’s opener. Al Shabab are now top of their group after two wins, while Al Nasr are level with their group opponents as all sides have recorded a win and a loss from two matches.
