Al Nasr can still triumph despite Wanderley scandal

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  • The Wanderley issue is overshadowing Al Nasr's season.

    It’s been easy to forget that Al Nasr have the biggest game in their history to play tonight.

    The row surrounding Wanderley’s passport has become all consuming ahead of the AFC Champions League quarter-final decider, dominating both boss Ivan Jovanovic’s statesmanlike pre-match press conference and the many tweets sent out from the aggrieved club’s official Twitter account.

    This rage – controlled when it came from the Serbian supremo’s lips – must be corralled. If this can be done successfully, the ‘miracle of Al Maktoum Stadium’ can occur.

    For the uninitiated, Brazil-born summer buy Wanderley enjoyed a dream debut in last month’s 3-0 first-leg triumph at El Jaish when he scored twice on an Indonesian passport.

    But officials from the southeast Asian-nation subsequently labelled the documents which saw him registered as the Asian player in the four-man foreign quota as “forged or falsified”, with the situation rapidly escalating from there.

    This alerted the Asian Football Confederation, who provisionally banned the 27-year-old striker for 60 days on September 2.

    Most egregiously for those of a Blue Wave-persuasion, the governing body followed this up on Monday, 48 hours before the second leg, with a declaration that the opener was a forfeit – meaning the emphatic scoreline was reversed in the Qatari’s favour.

    The call means the Blue Wave have gone from runaway favourites to extend their historic first foray into the competition’s knockout stages, to the cusp of elimination. No team in the tournament’s history has recovered from such a cavernous first-leg disadvantage.

    No matter the success of a promised appeal, the immediate situation is a bleak one. Yet they cannot think all hope is lost or chose to retreat into a sense of injustice. Destiny can be wrestled back into their hands.

    There were enough positive signs witnessed in Doha to think a magical result can, somehow, be attained. Nasr dominated from kick-off to the final whistle. This was a performance defined by far more than Wanderley’s brace.

    Centre-back Mubarak Saeed was supreme, utilising his class on and off the ball to dominate opponent Romarinho. He was matched on either flanks by swashbuckling full-backs Mahmoud Khamis and Ahmed Al Yassi, with the continuing snub of the pair by UAE coach Mahdi Ali becoming ever-more mystifying.

    Stalwart Tariq Ahmed excelled when pushed up into the playmaker position, his sweeping ball to spark the opener majestic. Behind him, all-action anchorman Khalid Jalal justified his recent introduction into the national set-up.

    Jaish simply had no answer to the men from Al Maktoum. Not even the introduction of Barcelona icon Seydou Keita at half-time could save them.

    Further credit for the result comes from the fact it was attained without star forward Jires Kembo Ekoko. The ex-Jaish loanee was forced to watch on from the stands because of suspension.

    Filling in up top is not alien to him. During legendary centre forward Asamoah Gyan’s injury prone final 2014/15 campaign at Al Ain, he slotted home 11 goals in 17 Arabian Gulf League games when regularly utilised there.

    Such form made his recruitment that summer by the Blue Wave a smart one. He might have gone on to strike only nine times in 22 top-flight games in Dubai, yet this was done with the constraints of a winger imposed on him.

    Despite all these factors, Nasr’s greatest weapon is in the dugout. Jovanovic is a master of cup competitions, leading Cypriot minnows APOEL to the last-eight in the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League and then lifting three trophies in his current role.

    His nuanced delivery in the preamble was perfectly formulated, striking a balance between dignified and indignant.

    The Nasr players must now heed the words of their coach and conjure up a similarly-supreme display this evening.

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