Al Ain pay the price for not translating dominance into goals

Published on: 22 February 2017

Al Ain: Al Ain’s attempt to win the 2016 AFC Champions League floundered on an inability to turn dominance into goals, and until Ismail Ahmed’s late equaliser against Zobahan on Tuesday  it seemed as if the 2003 champions were about to repeat the mistakes that hurt them throughout the previous campaign.

Twice when they faced Qatar’s El Jaish in the group stages and in the second leg of the final against Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Al Ain had been in almost total command, only to be hit with the kind of sucker punch that rips the heart out of any team.

So when Honduran striker Jerry Bengtson scored 57 minutes into Tuesday’s Group C meeting at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium, there was a distinct sense of déjà vu for a club that has the resources to have long ago added to their solitary AFC Champions League crown.

In Omar Abdulrahman (pictured right), the reigning AFC Player of the Year, they possess a midfielder who can create goal scoring opportunities from the slightest opening. The mop-topped magician was at it again on Tuesday, conjuring up eight chances for his team – more than any other player over the first two days of Match Day 1.

And yet, despite the creation of so much, Al Ain laboured to earn a point.

With Brazilian striker Douglas – who was the club’s frontline forward throughout last season’s campaign – not included in the AFC Champions League squad and loan signing Nassir Al Shamrani, another winner of the AFC Player of the Year crown, on the bench, the line was led by the ineffective Ibrahim Diaky.

The 34-year-old from Ivory Coast did not manage a shot on target in the 70 minutes he was on the field, and Al Shamrani fared little better when he was eventually introduced in the 63rd minute.

And so it was left to towering central defender Ahmed to salvage a point for Zoran Mamic’s team with a fine header from a corner to cancel out Bengtson’s earlier opener.

But with Mamic brought in to right the issues that saw Zlatko Dalic ousted in the weeks after Al Ain’s defeat in the final of the 2016 AFC Champions League at the hands of Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, the club from the United Arab Emirates need to do more to find a solution to their striking conundrum.

Photo: Lagardère Sports

Source: the-afc.com

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