Boualem
Khoukhi scored a brace to give Al Sadd a narrow 2-1 win at home over Al
Ahli of Saudi Arabia in the first leg of their AFC Champions League
Round of 16 tie at Jassim bin Hamad Stadium yesterday.
Al Sadd
started their first AFC Champions League knockout game since 2015
brightly, and made the breakthrough in just the third minute as Khoukhi
got into the box after a fine exchange with Xavi and coolly slotted home
with his left foot for the opener.
Despite the early setback, the
visitors seemed confident of levelling the scores and came close to
scoring twice in the space of one minute. However, Ahmed Suhail and
Salem al-Hajri produced two goal-line clearances to deny Abdulfattah
Asiri and Hussain al-Mogahwi respectively.
Just as Al Ahli looked to
make their mark, Khoukhi struck again in the 28th minute, doubling Al
Sadd’s lead with a powerful header past Mohammed al-Owais following
Baghdad Bounedjah’s cross from the right.
Al Sadd thus went into the
break with a 2-0 lead but a revitalised Al Ahli side emerged from the
tunnel with a desire to change things around. They were rewarded just
two minutes into the second half, with Mohannad Aseri heading in Amir
Kurdi’s cross to reduce the deficit.
That goal set the stage for a
feisty second half which saw both sides carve up numerous chances but no
goal materialised. Tournament leading scorer Bounedjah was caught
offside on multiple occasions while Saad al-Dosari stood his ground at
the other end to deny the Al Ahli forwards.
In the dying minutes,
Bounedjah missed out a golden opportunity to add a third goal but the
Algerian striker shot it straight to Al Ahli goalkeeper. The result
leaves the tie nicely poised going into next week’s second leg in
Jeddah’s King Abdullah Sports City.
Al Sadd coach Jesualdo Ferreira
was disappointed with the result as he lamented for conceding an away
goal. Now Sadd need to score in the return leg or play out a goalless
draw for a chance to progress into the quarter-finals. Ferreira’s
players created a fistful of chances during the game only to lack a
cutting edge and there was the sense that they were running out of
ideas.
“It was not a satisfactory result for us. It was important not
to concede a goal but unfortunately we did. I was not happy with our
defence today. We could have scored five goals with the number of
chances we created. And in the end we were punished for missing those
scoring opportunities as they scored,” Ferreira said.
“This is not a
good result for us. Now they need just a goal in the return leg to win
on aggregate. It’s a harsh result and I am very sad because of it. Not
just the defenders, the whole team did not defend well. Pedro’s return
for the second leg will be very important for us. I want to be logical,
not pessimistic, but match in Jeddah will be a very difficult for us,”
the Portuguese added.
Ferreira was also unhappy with Al Sadd
jam-packed schedule as they have been playing matches every three days.
“It’s been a hectic schedule for us as we are playing back to back
matches in different tournaments. My players are suffering from fatigue.
And it will be much difficult for us in the coming days. We played the
final of the Qatar Cup against Al Duhail and then Al Khor in the Amir
Cup quarters. Today we played again. On Friday, we have Amir Cup
semi-final against Duhail and then we travel to Saudi for the match on
Monday,” he said.
![Al Saddu2019s Boualem Khoukhi (second from left) takes a shot at the Al Ain goal during the first leg of their Round of 16 match in AFC Champions League at the Al Sadd Stadium in Doha yesterday. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil Al Saddu2019s Boualem Khoukhi (second from left) takes a shot at the Al Ain goal during the first leg of their Round of 16 match in AFC Champions League at the Al Sadd Stadium in Doha yesterday. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil](https://www.gulf-times.com/uploads/imported_images/Upload/Slider/52018803729465712966.jpg)
Al Sadd’s Boualem Khoukhi (second from left) takes a shot at the Al Ain goal during the first leg of their Round of 16 match in AFC Champions League at the Al Sadd Stadium in Doha yesterday. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil