#360view: No shame in Al Ahli’s defeat to GZ

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Keep your head high: Guangzhou Evergrande vs Al Ahli.

    The better team won. It’s a phrase which is disregarded as too simple in sport, but can often not be bettered.

    This is the situation for an Al Ahli team who came so close to making history in last night’s AFC Champions League decider.

    Their stupefying run from domestic disasters to first-ever finalists in 2015 deserves to be held in high esteem, rather than painfully remembered with regret.

    – AFC: Al Ahli go down fighting against Guangzhou Evergrande
    – FOLLOW: Live football scores from around the world

    – SHARE, RATE, WIN with Sport360 and ValoraFutbol

    This was the message from the players, coach Cosmin Olaroiu and president Abdulla Al Naboodah as they trudged away following Guangzhou Evergrande’s second ACL triumph in three years, courtesy of a 1-0 aggregate victory.

    The challenge now is to ensure a fearsome Arabian Gulf League start does not get dragged down by disappointment.

    The foundations are firmly in place to ensure 2016’s absence from the continent’s premier club competition does not happen to this developing team again.

    The combatants matched up for talent in a two-legged contest where experience carried greatest weight.

    Ultimately, the five-time Chinese Super League holders were better honed.

    A benchmark has been set by Luiz Felipe Scolari’s excellent Southern China Tigers, to a man all tactically aware, totally committed, physically impressive and of fine skill.

    Contrition for Ahli should rightly be the preserve of defender Salmeen Khamis, whose disgraceful reaction to his 67th-minute sending off tainted an engrossing match at the bombastic Tianhe Stadium.

    Others can feel they should have played better, none more than UAE midfielder Habib Fardan who looked racked with guilt as he exited the stadium following an uncharacteristically wasteful performance on the ball.

    The 25-year-old’s day will come again and so will Ahli’s.

    This was a two-legged tie played on a knife’s edge. A moment of rare class decided it when forward Elkeson’s nutmeg and swivel from a devilish flick ended with a sharp toe-poked finish.

    Ahli possess a pool of talent only a select group in Asia can ever dream of matching and a plethora of young stars such as defensive midfielder Majed Hassan who will continue to grow.

    In Olaroiu, they also have a coach who has taken them to treble glory in 2013-14 and will do so once more now he has been armed with a three-year contract extension when other Middle Eastern sides would have mistakenly sacked him as a woeful top-flight defence ended with the team seventh.

    Guangzhou’s riches mean they possess the ACL 2015 top scorer and Most Valuable Player in Ricardo Goulart.

    Yet Ahli boast his former Cruzeiro team-mate, Everton Ribeiro, who shone brighter in China’s third-largest city, a Brazilian striker in Lima who is already in the hunt for a 15th goal of the season and a record Dh81 million buy in Moussa Sow who was not even eligible to play.

    Composure, as ever with UAE sides, is the biggest takeaway.

    No Guangzhou player came close to replicating the violent outbursts which saw full-back Abdulaziz Haikal dismissed in November 7’s goalless opener in Dubai and Khamis last night.

    Everything else is already in place for Ahli to ensure a debut run into the knockout stages is not an aberration.

    Master the mental game and they can go one better in the bear future.

    Recommended