ABU DHABI // Walter Zenga, the Al Jazira coach, was left to rue missed scoring chances and a lost opportunity to secure a place in the last 16 as his team suffered their first defeat in the Asian Champions League.
Mohammad Ghazi scored the only goal of the match in a 1-0 result for Esteghlal of Iran to earn their first three points and get their campaign back on track, last night at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium.
“If you can’t put the ball in the back of the net, you can’t win any game,” Zenga said.
“We had the game well in control for about 55 minutes before Esteghlal could have their first shot at the goal. On the other hand, the Esteghlal keeper made at least three good saves.
“Esteghlal played the counter-attack well and scored from the only chance they got. But our chances are not over with this game; we’ll try to win the next game.”
Zenga also complained of the schedule, which has them meeting Al Ahli in the Arabian Gulf League on Sunday and then Emirates four days later.
They travel to Doha for a meeting with Al Rayyan in the ACL on April 16 and return to play the Arabian League Cup final three days later against Ahli at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain, concluding a stretch of 10 games in 35 days.
Amir Ghalenoei, the Esteghlal coach, described the game as a “war” for a team fighting to stay in the competition.
“It was not football we played tonight,” he said. “We were waging a war because such was the pressure and intensity of the game for us.
“It was a must-win game for us to keep our hopes alive in the competition. It was so tense and hard out there and players showed real character with a brilliant performance.
“Jazira played well in the first half but in the second half we made some substitutions and played better and scored the only goal of the match. Now we are back in the race and our next game against Al Shabab is another final for us, like this game against Jazira.”
With a crowd of 13,550 watching on, Jazira could have gone in to the break with a lead had they been on target from the scoring opportunities they created.
Ahmed Al Ghilani had a golden opportunity to put them ahead midway through the first half.
He did all the hard work by slipping past the Esteghlal defenders and drawing out the goalkeeper Mahdi Rahmati, but shot it wide, to the surprise of everyone.
Rahmati was outstanding between the posts prior to that. He dived to his right to push out a low shot from Ali Mabkhout and did well to block a close range effort from Al Ghilani.
He stopped Mabkhout from close range just before the break.
The visitors were denied when Ali Kasheif made an excellent save by blocking a rocket from Pejman Nouri, who was set-up in front of the goal by Arash Borhani, early in the second half. Esteghlal made a similar move down the right flank for Hashem Beikzadeh to send a fine cross to Mahdi Nazari, who slipped it towards the unmarked Ghazi to shoot the ball to the top corner of the net.
Jazira dropped to second on seven points as Al Shabab, the Saudi side, defeated Al Rayyan 2-0 in Doha to move on top of the points standings on nine.
apassela@thenational.ae
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