Beirut: Coach Basim Qasim hailed Air Force Club’s never-say-die attitude after his side secured their place in the 2016 AFC Cup final following a 3-2 win over Lebanon’s Al Ahed on Tuesday that completed a 4-3 aggregate win in the continental semi-final.
Goals from Nour Mansour and Hassan Chaito either side of Hammadi Ahmad’s strike had given the home side a 2-1 lead at half-time, but an own goal from Mansour and a goal from Bashar Resan flipped the script and put Air Force Club in the driving seat.
Although Resan was sent off with six minutes remaining, Al Ahed were unable to regain their first half momentum and it was the Iraqi Premier League side that progressed to the continental climax.
“The match was a very open one for the two teams and although we conceded a goal from a penalty, we pulled things together and scored the equaliser before conceding a second goal before the break which made things harder for us in the second period,” said Qasim.
“However, we had a big will to win, especially in the final third of the match, and we played with five players in the frontline. We proved that we are a strong team and we managed to get an important victory against a strong side who have had an excellent performance in this competition.”
MATCH REPORT
Ahead of the tie, coach Robert Jaspert had spoken of Al Ahed following in the footsteps of fellow Lebanese Premier League sides Al Nejmah and Safa by reaching the AFC Cup finale and even going one further and become the first club from Lebanon to lift the title.
However, following the 1-1 draw in the first leg in Doha, Jaspert’s side proved unable to overcome the final hurdle in front of the their home supporters.
“As we expected, the result of the first leg made things harder for the two teams in the match tonight. We had a fair performance in the first half but in general our team didn’t have the expected performance that we were looking for,” said Jaspert.
“Our defensive mistakes helped our opponents to score and we don’t deserve this result taking into consideration our run in the competition. After the equaliser, everything was lost and that is why we had to go forward and try to score and made some attacking changes.”
Photo: Lagardère Sports
Source: the-afc.com