Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Jeddah: Christian Gross blamed fatigue as his Al Ahli side exited the AFC Champions League on Wednesday, sliding out of the competition on the away goals rule despite defeating Naft Tehran 2-1.
The result left the teams in a 2-2 tie after both legs, with the Iranians advancing to the next phase of the competition for the first time thanks to Padovani’s first-half strike.
Omar Al Soma scored twice for Al Ahli and went close to claiming a third when he hit the Naft crossbar with a free kick late in the second half, but it was not enough to ensure Al Ahli joined compatriots Al Hilal in the draw for the last eight.
ACL RD16 2nd Leg: Al Ahli (KSA) 2-1 Naft Tehran
“The players put a lot of effort in the match despite the exit from the competition,” said the Swiss coach. “We had an excellent performance in the first half but in the second period, the performance of the players dropped and they were tired.
“We didn’t take advantage of the chances that we created as we had several chances to score. Despite conceding an early goal in the first half, we made a good comeback and scored two goals but it wasn’t enough for us.”
Al Ahli dominated much of the opening 45 minutes, but Padovani (Leandro Padovani Celin) scored against the run of play to make life more difficult for the Jeddah-based club.
However, Al Soma scored in the 36th and 42nd minutes to give Al Ahli a lifeline and set his side up for a barnstorming second half. But, despite being perfectly placed to capitalise, Al Ahli fell short.
“We had to continue our pressure in the match but our replacements didn’t have as good a performance as we expected,” said Gross. “We hope that we can draw some lessons from the competition and that we can have better results in the future.”
Photo: WSG