Abu Dhabi: Al Ain coach Zlatko Dalic admits his side face a Herculean task if they are to reach the AFC Champions League final after they suffered a 3-0 semi-final first leg drubbing at the hands of Al Hilal at the King Fahd International Stadium in Saudi Arabia late on Tuesday.
After being tied 0-0 at the break, a brace by Nasser Al Shamrani and another goal by Thiago Neves in a nine-minute spell saw the match turn heavily in Al Hilal’s favour and against 10-man Al Ain.
All three goals were down to defensive lapses and Dalic now has his task cut out before the return leg at the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium on September 30.
The Croatian said: “I feel like the six months spent in the preparation of the players for this tournament has gone in vain.
“We controlled the game throughout the first 60 minutes and even created scoring opportunities, but we made some grave errors and a big team like Al Hilal succeeded in exploiting them and turned the game completely.”
Al Hilal opened the scoring when star striker Al Shamrani brushed off Esmail Ahmad before launching a fierce shot that went in off the underside of the bar.
The scoreline read 2-0 when Neves set Abdullah Zori free and, as keeper Khalid Eisa came out, he crossed for Al Shamrani to notch his ninth goal of the tournament.
Minutes later, Nawaf Al Abed was upended by Eisa when through on goal and the referee had no hesitation in showing the stopper the red card. Eisa’s replacement, Dawoud Sulaiman, however, saved Neves’ shot from the resultant penalty.
But Neves did score the third on 70 minutes, when he slotted home from close range after being fed by Al Shamrani.
“Eisa’s red card hurt us and thereafter we were doing the catching up. But it was the first goal that blasted the confidence of our players and this led to two more goals. It is a big defeat but we will not spare anything in the return leg to try and come back,” Dalic said.
Al Ain’s star playmaker Omar Abdul Rahman, who was far from his best in this outing, added: “This was just the first half and it is gone. Just as they scored three today, we can score three in the second leg, but today they were the better team.”
Al Ain’s Ghanaian striker Asamoah Gyan also expressed confidence that his side can put their title campaign back on track in the return leg.
“It just wasn’t our day and everything changed in just six minutes. We had lapses in concentration and we paid the price, but that’s football,” said Gyan, who is the leading scorer in the tournament with 12 goals.
“You have to understand that we still have 90 minutes to change our destiny and I’m confident the boys can do that. This result has made things extremely difficult, but if we can stick to our plans and implement them correctly then we can still qualify,”
Al Hilal coach Laurentiu Reghecampf, meanwhile, warned his players against complacency.
“We are happy with the result as we scored three goals, but this doesn’t mean that we are in the final. In football, a lot of things happen and hopefully we can repeat the good performance that we had tonight in the second leg,” the Romanian coach said.
“We had a good match as the performance improved in the second period and this means that our team is prepared well. Al Ain had a good start in the first half but we knew how to deal with them and to take advantage from the chances that we had.”
