A penalty kick from Kaveh Rezaei in injury time gave Iranian side Esteghlal a 1-0 win over Al Ain in the Asian Champions League last-16 first leg on Monday night at the Azadi stadium in Tehran.
It looked as though the game was heading for a goaless draw until a handball from Al Ain centre-back Mohammed Ahmed forced the referee to point to the spot.
Rezaei stepped forward to fire the ball into the bottom right corner in the second of the four-minute added time.
The two teams each had a player sent off towards the end of a close game that did not provide many scoring opportunities.
Al Ain were reduced to 10 men when Saeed Juma was shown the red card by Chinese referee Fu Ming for a foul on Mohsin Karimi on 77 minutes.
Esteghlal suffered a similar setback when Farshid Esmaeili was given his marching orders when he retaliated after a tackle by Al Ain’s Brazilian winger Caio five minutes from time.
Al Ain will now regroup following the late disappointment when they meet the Iranian club in the return leg, hoping they can use home advantage to good use at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium on Monday.
It was a disappointing end to an otherwise solid performance from Al Ain.
They can return to the UAE with a lot of confidence as they were the more creative side and enjoyed possession and territorial advantage before the setback in injury time.
“Indeed, it was a disappointing ending but we can take a lot of positives forward from this game,” Al Ain centre-back Ismail Ahmed said.
“It was a tense and close game. We had a few chances from which we could have scored.
“Anyway, this is now history. We are trailing by one goal and have another 90 minutes to play. Hopefully, we can regroup and win the next game.”
Al Ain started without their Saudi Arabian striker Nasser Al Shamrani, who was left out of the squad because of a travel ban by the Iranian government on the nationals from the country.
Omar Abdulrahman, the Emirati playmaker, took his place with Colombian Danilo Asprilla and Caio operating on either side as the wing attacks.
Al Ain had the better of the first half. However, they failed to break the deadlock from the chances they created due to poor finishing. Caio came closest with a low close-range effort at the near post but it did not have the pace or direction to beat Esteghlal goalkeeper Mahdi Rahmati a minute before half-time.
Yousef Ahmed, who replaced Asprilla after the hour mark, had an opportunity but his effort from a difficult angle was blocked by Armenian defender Hrayr Mkoyan.
Esmaeli had few opportunities at the other end in the second half. He could not find a way past Khaled Essa, the Al Ain keeper, with his effort in the 65th minute. However, he made up for that with his late goal from the spot.
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