DUBAI // For Al Ahli, this was a night to largely forget.
The UAE champions, runners-up in the Asian Champions League in 2015, have begun their 2017 campaign almost as slowly as they did two years ago, playing out a listless 0-0 draw at home to Al Taawoun on Monday night.
Off colour and seemingly off kilter too, they now have four points from their first three matches. It was not a fatal result – far from it – but Ahli will need to improve significantly if they are to get close to emulating that 2015 run.
“What I thought would be a difficult game, was a very difficult game,” said manager Cosmin Olaroiu, whose side at least sit second on goal difference in Group A at the halfway stage. “All the circumstances before the game made it a very difficult situation.
“We did not play the best football that we can. We had a few chances to score and didn’t. Then we took risks and we could have lost on the counter-attack.
“We still have chances and we go for the next games, I hope, with all the squad. This will give us more possibilities. All the teams have chances until now to qualify. Of course, I cannot tell you we will qualify.”
In reality, Al Taawoun should have provided Ahli little problem. The fifth-placed side in Saudi Arabia’s Pro League, they offered next to nothing in attack at the Rashid Stadium, but were the grateful recipients of some uncharacteristically poor Ahli play.
The first half can be described at best as prosaic. The only real moment of note came three minutes before the break, although that it was Makhete Diop’s mis-hit cross that struck the Taawoun crossbar spoke volumes.
To their credit, Ahli improved after the interval – they simply had to. On 49 minutes, Diop spun inside the visitors’ penalty area and unleashed a fierce low shot, but Taawoun goalkeeper Fahad Al Shamri saved smartly to his left.
Ismail Al Hammadi was granted a start, but for the most part his recent woe continued, the winger repeatedly miscontrolling the ball or wasting possession. With the UAE’s crucial World Cup 2018 double header to come later this month, it does not bode well.
Al Hammadi did almost break the deadlock just before the hour, but Al Shamri parried the Ahli wideman’s half-volley from the edge of the penalty area.
Six minutes later, Ahli should have been in front. This time, Abdulaziz Haikal made his way from right-back and exchanged passes with Asamoah Gyan. In on goal, and with only Al Shamri to beat, Haikal somehow lashed the ball high over the bar from eight yards out. Clearly, it was a defender’s finish.
Not long after, Ahli were nearly made to pay for their profligacy. On 72 minutes, Taawoun playmaker Lucian Sanmartean curled a corner directly onto the home side’s upright. For all their endeavour, which cannot be faulted, it represented a rare attempt on the Ahli goal.
Another arrived with one minute remaining, when the ball rolled its way to Mousa Al Shameri yards out from the Ahli goal. Yet, with the whole net to aim at, the forward placed a hopelessly inadequate shot straight at goalkeeper Majed Naser.
“Inadequate” could describe the match in general. Ahli need to quickly forget their night to forget.
jmcauley@thenational.ae
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