Abu Dhabi: ‘Yes We Can,’ read a huge banner at the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium on Tuesday evening. It did ignite a warrior spirit in the Al Ain camp but was not enough to get them across the line in the second leg semi-final of AFC Champions League.
Faced with a Mission Impossible task of breaching a 3-0 deficit, a 10-man Al Ain could only manage to beat Al Hilal 2-1 and their challenge came to an end as they lost the semis 4-2 on aggregate to Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal after a high voltage encounter.
Lee Myung Joo and Kembo-Ekoko scored a goal apiece for Al Ain while Nassir Al Shamrani reduced the margin for Al Hilal.
An early goal was the need of the hour and that came from the first free-kick that Al Ain earned in the ninth minute. Star medio Omar Abdul Rahman, who was brought down just outside the box, floated in the dead ball and Korean recruit Myung Joo headed home his first goal for Al Ain.
That goal put Al Ain into a cruise control mode but also provided their opponents several openings behind the defence. A scorching left-footer from Al Hilal’s Neves Augusto Thiago just missed the goal by inches. Almost immediately, Al Ain’s Ghanaian ace striker and leading scorer of the tournament, Asamoah Gyan got his act together and almost got the second goal in the 19th minute.
A measured cross from the left by Jires Kembo-Ekoko was followed with a well-directed header from Gyan but an alert Al Hilal custodian Abdullah Mohammed plucked it from the air at the goal line.
Omar tore open the Al Hilal defense several times but somehow, Gyan failed to get the breakthrough. Al Hilal team and fans would be indebted to their custodian Mohammad as he stood in the way of shots, time and again.
As Al Ain pressed, Al Hilal’s ace striker Nassir Al Shamrani and Thiago also found opportunities to score off counters but somehow they ran out of ideas once inside the penetrative zone. Substitute Nawaf Shaker Al Abid then failed to connect a cross from Al Shamrani. Both teams went into the breather promising another cracker of a second session and it indeed turned out be one. Somehow, Gyan’s magical touch kept eluding him even after the switchover and Al Ain’s patience was fast running out. Their fans were starting to get irritated and they made it felt by throwing water bottles on to the field.
The pressure to score was now clearing getting onto the Al Ain players with the clock ticking away. Al Hilal’s star striker Al Shamrani ‘sealed’ the fate of the home team with a brilliant strike after being fed by Al Abid with a clinical through.
Al Ain now needed to score four more goals to keep their hopes alive and Gyan left them in deeper trouble after picking up a red card for a needless challenge on Salem Al Dawsari. The booking resulted in a free-for-all and it took the referee and support staff a good eight to 10 minutes to get both teams to resume play.
Despite being reduced to 10 men, Al Ain managed to pump in a goal through Kembo-Ekoko after a Omar lob was well set from the backline by Mohammad Ahmad. Al Ain were all over Al Hilal territory after that goal, but somehow the latter held their defenses tight till the final whistle to march into the final.
