Dubai: Three-time champions Shabab Al Ahli Dubai are confident of a fourth shot at the title when they travel to Zabeel Stadium for the return leg semi-final against Al Wasl in the Arabian Gulf Cup on March 22.
The two teams settled for a lacklustre goalless draw late on Friday in the second semi-final after Al Wahda had powered their way to a 4-2 win over Dibba earlier in the evening. The return legs of the semi-finals will be held on March 22 with the winners moving into the final scheduled for March 29.
“This is one game where we had total domination and the only thing that was missing was a goal or goals to show that we were the superior team. We now have time to address this issue, and I am sure we will come up with a way to score goals when we play them next,” Shabab Al Ahli Dubai coach Mahdi Ali told media after the match.
“We are all aware that we need to score goals, but we also know that we don’t have enough attacking players as all our strikers are injured. Besides that we do not even have the allowed quota of foreign players and we are playing with just one foreigner [Erceg Ante]. That aside, we just need to score the goals,” he added.
Ali was pleased with the manner in which the defending champions controlled proceedings with Ante and Esmail Al Hammadi coming close at breaking the deadlock. “We had three clear chances and they didn’t have a single shot on our goal. Besides I think their goalkeeper was lucky. His reaction was good,” Ali observed.
“It’s all to play for in the second leg and hopefully we will score the goals we need to advance to the final and defend our title,” he added.
Al Wasl coach Rodolfo Arruabarrena deflected suggestions that his team had come to Al Ghusais looking out for a draw so that they could settle the issue on home turf later this month. “The level of both teams was similar and it’s not that we didn’t fight for a win. Our problem is that some of our key players are injured, and even Fabio [de Lima] is playing at 50 per cent. Luckily, we have time to rest now and rectify things when we meet again,” the Argentinian coach noted.
However, before that the Cheetahs will have to play in the Group C match of the 2018 Asian Champions League against leaders Persepolis of Iran on March 13. The Iranian club is tied at the top with six points each along with Qatar’s Al Sadd and Nasaf Qarshi of Uzbekistan, while Al Wasl are yet to open their account in only their second appearance in the continental competition.
“We need to see how the players are. We have some young players who can make a difference, but at the same time we need to make suitable changes so that we can play to our strength,” Arruabarrena said.
