Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Doha: Coach Sabri Lamouchi admitted his El Jaish side struggled to deal with an organised Al Nahda side as the Qatari club narrowly edged their visitors from Oman in a 2-1 score line that keeps alive their hopes for a third straight appearance in the group stage of the AFC Champions League.
Ely Cheikh Samba El Voullany had given the Oman champions a fourth minute lead at Al Gharafa Stadium and they held out against their hosts’ continued bombardment for a further 74 minutes before succumbing to Brazilian striker Wagner Ribeiro’s leveller.
His compatriot Romarinho then snatched victory for El Jaish with a goal in stoppage time to book his side a meeting with Iranian side Naft Tehran next Tuesday for a place in Group B of the AFC Champions League.
“The victory was hard for us because we faced an organized opponent who made it difficult for us to create chances and reach their goal and when we did, our players failed to score from these chances,” said El Jaish coach Lamouchi, pictured coaching Cote d’Ivoire at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
“However, we are now in the next round and things will be harder for us because we will be playing away.
“We have a problem in scoring the chances that we create and I hope that we can fix the mistakes that we made today because this competition requires more focus and for us to score goals.”
Lamouchi’s counterpart in the Al Nahda dug out, Mohsin Darwish, was happy with the performance of his players against El Jaish, but felt that the greater experience of the Qatari club proved the difference.
Darwish will now helm his side in the AFC Cup competition and will be up against Jordan’s Al Wehdat and Syria’s Al Wahda in Group A of the AFC Cup along with the winner of Salam Zgharta of Lebanon and Tajikistan’s Khayr Vahdat who face off next Tuesday.
“We played a big match today and we put El Jaish under big pressure as the match nearly ended with a draw before the winner of El Jaish came in the second minute of stoppage time and we eventually lost the match,” said Darwish following the tie in Doha.
“The early lead gave us a lot of confidence but lack of experience was our weakness today. We studied our opponents and we knew that the match will be very hard but the experience of El Jaish players was vital today and gave them the victory.”
Photo: AFP