ABU DHABI // Al Jazira’s winless run in the Asian Champions League was stretched to 11 games after they went down to Iran’s Esteghlal Khouzestan 1-0, courtesy of a first-minute goal from Cameroon’s Aloys Nong.
It was a second successive defeat for the Arabian Gulf League leaders but a second win for the ACL debutants in the competition on Monday night at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium.
Jazira manager Henk ten Cate refused to give up hopes of going beyond the group stage. “We still have four games left,” he said. “And having played against this team and their result over Al Fateh [of Saudi Arabia], I would like to think Lekhwiya [of Qatar to whom they lost 3-0] is the strongest in the group.”
Jazira wanted to do a balancing act by preserving some of their key players for Saturday's domestic league game against Al Ahli.
The Abu Dhabi club hold a commanding nine-point lead in the Arabian Gulf League over second-placed Ahli with seven games left. A good result Saturday followed by another against Al Ain, whom they meet four days later, can all but seal the title.
Ten Cate defended his decision of leaving out eight regular players on the bench for the ACL game.
“We had to make some hard decisions and I feel sorry for our fans,” he said.
“We must be realistic. If you ask me if we can win the ACL, my answer would be ‘no’. But if you ask me if we have a chance of winning the domestic league, I would say ‘yes’.
“This is the reality.”
Jazira did not lack a competitive edge despite fielding a depleted line-up, yet they failed to score from the chances they created.
They even tried by bringing in their Moroccan playmaker Mbrak Boussoufa, the domestic league’s leading scorer Ali Mabkhout and South Korean Park Jong-woo in the second half, but the visitors did well to preserve the lead.
Boussoufa and Mabkhout made an immediate impact by exchanging passes but the Moroccan’s finish was wide.
Then Jazira centre-back Musallem Fayez’s header off from a free kick crashed against the bar after Peyman Shirzadi’s free kick from 35 yards cannoned off the bar at the other end.
“We were unlucky about the finishing,” Ten Cate said.
“This was our story of the game.”
Sirous Pourmousavi, the Khouzestan manager, dedicated the win to their fans but insisted the group was still wide open.
“We are in a good situation at the moment but this is a hard group and we’ll try to take this winning formula forward,” he said
And when asked if Jazira made it easy for them by leaving out some of their key players, Pourmousavi said: “We can play only against a team we have in front of us, and if Jazira wanted to rest some of their players it’s their problem, not ours.”
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport