Al Ain: Neither Al Ain nor Al Hilal could manage to find the breakthrough in the first leg of last night’s AFC Champions League quarter-final, but there was still plenty to like, and plenty to work on ahead of the second leg in Riyadh three weeks.
Abdulrahman Impresses
While all the focus usually goes to Omar Abdulrahman, it was his brother Mohamed that impressed most last night. Whether linking with the attack, or tracking back and cutting out Al Hilal’s forays forward, the older Abdulrahman brother put in a masterful display.
As his heat map above displays, he was deployed mostly on the right hand side of midfield where he worked hard to link up with his brother, Omar, and Caio on the right flank.
But it was defensively he did a lot of his best work, as the graph below displays with tackles won, interceptions and clearances. It was a complete display.
Defence Stands Tall
While the match may have ended 0-0 it wasn’t through lack of chances, and as the home side Al Ain created their fair share, but Al Hilal’s defence stood tall and repelled everything that came their way.
Abdullah Al Hafith and Osama Hawsawi were immense at the back for the visitors, with Al Hafith in particular making two crucial tackles inside the box to deny goal scoring opportunities to Omar Abdulrahman and Marcus Berg. The timing had to be precise, as highlighted by the rash challenge of Al Ain defender Mohanad Salem late in the game when he was shown a second yellow, and in both cases Al-Hafith got the timing perfect.
The graph above shows the defensive acts of both Al-Hafith and Hawsawi, highlighting the power of work they completed on the night.
Caio Crossing
The former Kashima Antlers winger looked lively throughout the night and as his heat map below shows, stuck tight to the right hand touch line for most of the night
He also linked up well with the Abdulrahman brothers, Omar and Mohamed, in midfield but, unfortunately, his lack of quality when delivering the all-important final ball soured his night.
Too often his crosses in from wide right were over hit, making it easy for the Al Hilal defence to defend, and as highlighted above their defence was at the top of their game all night so it needed some class to get the better of them and unfortunately Caio struggled in that department last night.
The graph above displays the number of unsuccessful crosses and passes from the Brazilian midfielder, who will no doubt be expecting more of himself in the second leg in three weeks time.
Photos: Lagardère Sports
Source: the-afc.com