Abu Dhabi: Brazilian Douglas’ brace and Omar Abdul Rahman’s brilliance saw Al Ain win their crucial Asian Champions League Group ‘D’ away match against Al Ahli 2-1 at the King Abdullah Sports City, Jeddah on Tuesday night.
With this win, Al Ain have swelled their points tally to six from four matches and is sitting pretty behind Qatar’s El Jaish, who have 10 points after they split points by playing out a goalless draw with Uzbekistan’s Nasaf.
If you give a player of Abdul Rahman’s guile space, to show his magic with the ball, it is certain that he would make you pay. Saudi outfits Al Ahli was guilty of doing so and Abdul Rahman kept providing his forwards with scoring opportunities by taking full control of the midfield.
After coming close to scoring several times in the first quarter, Douglas put Al Ain in the lead in the 25th minute on a move triggered by Abdul Rahman. The star medio found Mohamed Ahmad with a measured through and the latter curled the ball in from the right flank for an unmarked Douglas, who jumped in front of a defender to slot home with a well-directed header.
Al Ain would have certainly widened the lead in the 32nd minute had Al Ahli’s defender Aqeel Al Sahabi not made a goalline save to thwart a free-kick from top of the box by Abdul Rahman. The crafty playmakers’ second attempt on that rebound was also goal bound but this time custodian Yasser Al Mosailem did well to tip it over.
Three minutes later, another free-kick, this time taken by Fellipe Bastos needed a swift save, stretching to the left by Al Mosailem.
It was expected that Al Ahli won’t lay low after the change of ends and they showed far more purpose after the switch. Striker Saleh Mohammed Al Jaman took the onus on himself and Al Ahli made some inroads, only to fall short of ideas once inside the box.
However, those threatening raids were stemmed once Al Ain coach Zlatko Dalic brought in his Colombian winger Danilo Asprilla in place of Bastos. That move almost immediately paid off as Asprilla just missed the second goal obliging to a pin-point curling through from Abdul Rahman. His on the run shot finding the bottom of the vertical. Immediately after that, Al Ain custodian Khalid Eisa kept out a power-packed free-kick from Ioannis Fetfatzidis with a dive to his right.
However, with Al Ain widening the lead to 2-0 in the 77th minute and Douglas completing his brace by blasting the goal on a cross by Asprilla on move initialed by Abdul Rehman, the wind was off the sails of Al Ahli. Al Jaman did provide the hosts with a consolation goal in the injury time but by then their fate was sealed. Al Ain, thus, completing a clean sweep over their rival whom they had beaten 1-0 at home in the first leg.
