Al Ain are taking care of business in Asian Champions League

With a potent mix of new signings and a few trusted stars – in Omar Abdulrahman and Asamoah Gyan – the UAE's most decorated club took another big step towards their conquest of Asia, writes John McAuley.

Al Ain midfielders Ahmed Barman, right, and Miroslav Stoch close in on Al Ittihad's Samba Diakite, centre, during their Asian Champions League football match on August 19, 2014 at the Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain. AFP PHOTO /MARWAN NAAMANIShow less

On a stifling Garden City evening, Al Ain breathed fresh life into their bid to become champions of Asia.

It has been seven years since the UAE has witnessed a club match of this magnitude, but its most decorated domestic side continued to wreak havoc on the continent, this time courtesy of a pulsating quarter-final first-leg victory against Al Ittihad.

They will need no reminding Tuesday night was only half the job. But that mattered little, as the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium throbbed at capacity, Al Ain responding with a performance worthy of the adulation.

They have held aloft the Asian Champions League trophy before, at the onset of the competition’s rebrand in 2003, yet an 11-year wait has given the tournament a greater significance.

That much was evident from the first minute, with Al Ain hounding and harrying their Saudi Arabian opponents, who as two-time Asian champions are no strangers to these types of tussles.

The sides had met before this season, in the group stages, and the residue of earlier meetings was on display. Rivalry rekindled, Ittihad were intent on shackling Omar Abdulrahman. At times, the attention seemed heavy handed.

However, the Al Ain playmaker resolved to do what he does best: grab control of the contest and prove tormentor-in-chief to those pitted against him. Abdulrahman’s 2013/14 season was interrupted by injury and a resultant loss in form, but here he was exhibiting whatever vintage a 22-year-old with a still-emergent career can possibly muster.

While Abdulrahman conducted, his teammates supplied the platform to perform above a heavy din. Of the summer signings, Lee Myjung-joo played to those hoary old South Korean stereotypes: industrious, tenacious, steadfast. He scurried and scampered about the pitch, offering the space for Abdulrahman to flourish, until withdrawn late to rapturous applause.

If his UAE football introduction is anything to go by, Al Ain have found an able replacement for Hilal Saeed, remnant of that victorious 2003 Champions League campaign.

Miroslav Stoch eventually excelled on debut, too, growing into the match following a sluggish start. Diminutive and dogged, he did enough to suggest he can be decisive, as well.

Throughout the middle of the match, when Al Ain seized the upper hand, Stoch, all pit-bull poise and snarling aggression, combined beautifully with the elegant Abdulrahman. Opposites do attract.

Asamoah Gyan deserves his share of the credit, scoring what could prove to be the fatal blow. The Ghanaian worked diligently throughout as a lone striker and his neat take and finish from Abdulrahman’s sumptuous pass was reward for his toil. With 11 goals, he stands alone as the 2014 tournament’s most prolific marksman.

His precision has been replicated by Zlatko Dalic, the Serbian coach who continues to hit all his targets since rescuing a flagging club last February.

Dalic determined Al Ain would begin their pre-season way back on July 4 in preparation for the Ittihad clash, and his independent streak has been validated. Training camps in Italy and Austria have been extensive and exhausting, but the fruits of that labour were there to see against the Saudis.

Remember, Ittihad are two rounds into their domestic league season, and could have conceivably overran Al Ain in this opening encounter. Yet the home side were first to every ball and, once the physical battle was won, they paraded their capacity to command.

Ittihad departed the Garden City battered and bruised, knowing they face the most daunting of assignments next week in Jeddah.

There, they may have to function without their typically vociferous support, as the Asian Football Confederation have demanded the game be played behind closed doors. An appeal is already under consideration.

Al Ain will create their own racket, though, just as they did to take the most precious of leads into the return leg. Unbreached at home and two goals up, the dream of emulating 2003 edges ever closer.

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