Al Ahli managed to salvage a point from their AFC Champions League Group D clash with Al Sadd, by holding the Qatari side to a 1-1 draw at the Rashid Stadium in Dubai on Wednesday night.
In a clash that saw Ahli boss Cosmin Olaroiu face a team he coached five years ago, the Dubai side were unable to avenge their heavy 5-0 defeat to Al Sadd in the same competition in 2010.
A sublime first half effort from Al Sadd’s Nadir Belhadj was canceled by Ahli’s Grafite after the break, which leaves the Red Knights in third place in their group with two points from their first two games in their Asian campaign. Al Sadd top the group with four points.
The first 20 minutes were an even affair with Ahli’s Ciel first threatening the Sadd goal with a close range header that sailed wide in the third minute.
Rodrigo Tabata, Al Sadd’s new Brazilian signing, fired a dangerous free kick 10 minutes later, but it barely missed Raul’s head.
Ahli captain Grafite tried to respond with his own header, latching onto an inch-perfect flick from Ciel but he was centimetres offside.
Hassan Al Haydos tried to put the visitors in front with a long range missile in the 18th minute but ‘keeper Saif Youssef did well to keep it at bay.
But it sparked a series of attacks from Al Sadd, who broke through in the 24th minute. What started off as a wasted chance from Abdelkarim Hassan, who danced around the penalty area to no avail, ended with a sensational left-footed strike from Belhadj, who was fed the ball by Tabata and did not hesitate to shoot from 30 yards out, his ball sailing past Youssef, finding the bottom right corner of the net.
Grafite tried to retaliate four minutes later, sending a deft cross into the box but his effort was cleared while Ciel squandered the hosts’ biggest chance when he fired over the bar after Luis Jimenez dribbled around four defenders to feed him a perfect ball.
The Red Knights thought they got the equaliser five minutes from the break when Ciel headed a Hugo Viana curler but Chinese referee Tan Hai disallowed the goal, ruling a foul against the Brazilian.
Raul almost doubled the lead for the Qatari side when he latched onto a Tabata low drive down the right but he struck wide.
Right after the restart, Ciel found himself one on one with Al Sheeb but he stumbled on the ball and was brought to the ground by the ‘keeper.
Just past the hour mark, Belhadj sprinted down the right before feeding Raul in the box but the Spanish legend was beaten by the Ahli defence.
His attempted volley six minutes later was also off target. It was Grafite who sent the Rashid Stadium crowd wild when he calmly nodded a Ismail Al Hammadi’s cross past Al Sheeb to equalise.
Three minutes from the whistle, Youssef had to block a tricky corner kick from Tabata. Sadd’s Abdelkarim Hassan fired a bullet from outside the box but a heroic Youssef put his hand at just the right time to send it over the bar.
The other Group D game saw Iran’s Sepahan edge past Saudi’s Al Hilal 3-2 in a gripping encounter.
