Abu Dhabi: Al Sadd coach Lhoussaine Ammouta believes former winners Al Sadd can again challenge for the continental title after securing a place in the group stage of the AFC Champions League after winning a second consecutive penalty shootout following Tuesday’s victory over Al Wahda of the United Arab Emirates.
Goalkeeper Saad Al Sheeb saved from Hussain Fadhel in sudden death after 120 minutes had left the side’s deadlock at 4-4 after former AFC Player of the Year Khalfan Ibrahim had scored a hat-trick for Al Sadd, which included the 95th minute equaliser at the end of normal time.
And having edged out Bahrain’s Al Riffa 11-10 on penalties following a goalless draw in last week’s preliminary round, Al Sadd will now take their place in Group C alongside Iran’s Foolad Khouzestan, Uzbekistan’s Lokomotiv and Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal having won the title in 2011 on penalties having also begun in the play-offs.
“I’m extremely happy with the exciting win as we gave our best tonight and we had great determination to make a good comeback and win the match in order to qualify to the group stage of the competition,” said Al Sadd coach Ammouta, pictured during last year's ACL campaign..
“We were behind tonight, but we came back stronger and we should have sealed the match before the penalty shootout.
“We want to have a good performance in the group stage and compete for the title.”
Al Wahda had taken an eight minute lead through Damian Diaz only for Yusef Ahmed and Ibrahim to turn the tie in favour of Al Sadd just after the hour mark.
Amer Omar quickly levelled the tie again with 18 minutes remaining before team-mate Mohamed Al Shehhi net what appeared to be the winner in the second minute of stoppage time.
But after a mass coming together of players shortly after saw Al Wahda’s Diaz and Adil Hermach receive red cards while Al Sadd’s Kasola was also given his marching orders, there was still time for Ibrahim to equalise.
The striker then reclaimed the lead for Al Sadd eight minutes into the second half of extra-time only for Ismail Matar’s superb free-kick to send the tie to penalties.
And after Grafite missed for Al Sadd and Omar missed for Al Wahda, Al Sheeb eventually emerged as the hero by denying Kuwaiti defender Fadhel in sudden death.
“I believe Al Wahda deserved to win tonight following the good performance that they showed today,” said Al Wahda coach Sami Al Jaber.
“We controlled the proceedings and the players showed great fighting spirits and I thank them for what they gave us tonight.
“Al Sadd are a big team and they have previously won the AFC Champions League title. We were not lucky in the last minutes of regular time and they managed to score, while we showed a good performance in the two extra halves, but the penalty shootout didn’t go our way.”
No comments:
Post a Comment