Abu Dhabi: Zoran Mamic, the Al Ain coach, bemoaned his side’s profligacy after the Boss drew their opening AFC Champions League game 1-1 with Zob Ahan on Tuesday evening.
Jerry Bengtson gave the Iranians the lead against the run of play in the 57th minute at the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium when he slid in to score from close range after Al Ain had failed to turn their dominance into goals.
But central defender Esmail Ahmad saved a point for the Boss in their Group C opener when he rose highest to meet Bandar Mohammad’s corner and powered a header past Mohammad Rashid Mazaheri in the Zob Ahan goal.
It was scant consolation for last year’s ACL runners-up, though.
“When we see what happened through the 90 minutes on the pitch, I’m not happy with the result,” said Mamic, Al Ain’s recently appointed successor to Zlatko Dalic.
“My team deserve victory, my team deserve the three points, especially in the first half when we played very good football and controlled the game. But football is played for goals and we didn’t score.”
Elsewhere in Group C, Saudi Arabia’s Al Ahli beat Bunyodkor — who entertain Al Ain next Tuesday — 1-0 at home.
Meanwhile, captain Esmail Mattar said there were plenty of positives his Al Wahda side could derive from their first match in the ACL group stage in six years despite a 2-1 defeat to Al Rayyan on Tuesday night.
The Abu Dhabi outfit battled bravely against the Qatar Stars League champions in their Group D opener at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha, and were unlucky not to return with a point after Ahmad Al Hammadi’s strike was ruled out for offside.
Gonzalo Viera put the hosts ahead after 13 minutes but the lead was cancelled out by a Rim Chang-woo equaliser 10 minutes before the break. Victor Caceres scored the winner for Michael Laudrup’s side on the hour-mark.
Al Rayyan lead the group after the first round of matches following the 1-1 draw between Persepolis of Iran and Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal.
Al Wahda host Persepolis next Tuesday evening and Mattar praised his side for a “hugely satisfying opening game”, with many of Javier Aguirre’s side making their ACL debuts.
“We have a lot of youngsters playing at this level for the first time and I thought, as a team, we did pretty well for a first game and playing away,” he said. “I think we can take a lot of positives from this game. We had our chances but we couldn’t make it count. However, after this performance I would like to think we can improve for the next [game].”
