Al Nasr must hope this tedious 1-1 draw does not come back to hurt them.
The Blue Wave hosted Lokomotiv Tashkent on Wednesday night knowing victory would send them through to the knockout stages of the AFC Champions League for the first time in three attempts.
They now need to avoid defeat at the Group A-pacesetters next month after they failed to seize the moment. Not even a stunning, 25-yard rocket from forward Jires Kembo Ekoko could inspire them during a game in which Temurkhuja Abdukholikov’s header gained a fair share of the spoils.
“As we have played in all the AFC Champions League games, we’ll go and play the same in Tashkent,” said Nasr boss Ivan Jovanovic. “We are not afraid of the game, we showed our value in all of the games and we will give all our efforts in Tashkent.”
Temurkhuja Abdukholikov’s header gained a share of the spoils.
The Blue Wave had barely made a ripple during their previous entries into the competition, finishing well off the pace in 2012 and 2013. Visitors who sit top of the nascent Uzbekistan Professional League and provided 10 members of the latest national squad stood in their way of making history, with a game to spare.
A tense encounter played out at Al Maktoum Stadium, lit up by Ekoko’s explosive intervention on 31 minutes. The summer signing from Al Ain left 92-cap White Wolves goalkeeper Ignatiy Nesterov rooted to the spot after producing a series of stepovers and thunderbolt into the net.
Makeshift centre-back Masoud Sulaiman’s close-range header went over before Lokomotiv levelled with a similar attempt. A whipped corner from two-time AFC Asian Player of the Year Server Djeparov was flicked on to target man Abdukholikov, who gratefully nodded in at the back post.
Despite boasting home advantage, Nasr retreated after the break. This lack of killer instinct was most clear late when winger Jonathan Pitroipa chose to cut inside into traffic rather than shoot when clean through.
If next month’s trip to Uzbekistan goes badly, they will only have themselves to blame.
