Arabian Gulf League: Al Nasr score late to salvage disappointing draw to Al Dhafra

Al Nasr's Joan Omari (6) vies for possession with Al Dhafra's Khalid Al Zaabi. Courtesy Arshad Khan

Al Nasr 2-2 Al Dhafra

Nasr: Khamis 41', Barrada 84'

Dhafra: Al Shehhi 61', Khrbin 68'

DUBAI // For Al Nasr, this will feel very much like two points dropped.

The Dubai club, on the back of an impressive run since Dan Petrescu took charge in November, were held at home by Al Dhafra on Saturday evening, a match that even required a late Abdelaziz Barrada strike to share the spoils.

Granted, Dhafra came into the fixture at Al Maktoum Stadium sitting eighth in the Arabian Gulf League and therefore only one place below their hosts. But Nasr are playing catch-up at the moment, seven points adrift of fourth and seemingly with little hope of gatecrashing the Asian Champions League spots. Before this, they had suggested a late run may be in the offing, with six victories from their past eight league games.

Yet having taken the lead against Dhafra close to half-time, when Ahmed Khamis made the most of a loose ball to round Ahmed Al Hammadi and place into an empty net, Nasr allowed the Western Region side back in. In fact, they were eventually fortunate to escape with a point.

Dhafra’s goals had much to do with Omar Khrbin’s talent. First, the Syrian forward, the club’s main man now Makhete Diop has defected to Al Ahli, forced a save from Nasr goalkeeper Mohd Ismail just after the hour, leaving Mohammed Al Shehhi to tap the rebound across the line. Then, minutes later, Khrbin rose unmarked at Nasr’s back post to head home Abdullah Abdulqadir‘s corner. It took his tally for the league season to eight goals.

Nasr, though, were provided a reprieve six minutes from time, when Jires Kembo Ekoko found Barrada with a pullback and the Moroccan supplied a neat finish. However, it barely provided Nasr a neat result. For it felt like a couple points lost.

What the managers said

• Dan Petrescu, Al Nasr: “Of course, I’m not happy because we wanted to win the match. But if you are 2-1 down and the score finishes 2-2 in the end one point is better than nothing. For sure, we didn’t play well. We should definitely do better: everyone, from the goalkeeper to the last man. We changed too much in our defence. The last five games we don’t concede a goal and today we even scored the first goal. We should have defended better.”

• Mohammed Kwid, Al Dhafra: “It is enough for us to get one point from Al Nasr because we have a lot of players injured — we had nine players missing through injury so we had a problem choosing a team to start the match. And this is the first match we played without Makhete Diop, so it’s a positive result for us. Al Nasr are a very good team, especially under Dan Petrescu. We respect them very much.”

Man of the match

• Omar Khrbin, Dhafra — The forward scored one and helped create the other, proving they could be life yet after Diop. He is key to Dhafra’s fortunes going forward.

National verdict

• Nasr were no one near their best, coping with injuries to key players and a lack of a creative spark. Deprived of a number of their own, Dhafra deserve significant credit for a point well earned.

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