Certain football stories defy logic. They require exploits not even their fans thought realistic, including unexpected results on foreign fields, last-minute escapes and slain giants.
Al Ahli could be in the final phases of one of those stories.
The Dubai club are, improbably, two matches from winning the Asian Champions League after a run that has gained momentum since a dramatic escape from the groups back in May. Ahli have eclipsed expectations at every stage since that reprieve six months ago, but their route to the final has been frantic and fascinating in equal measure.
Ahmed Khalil sparked it. His goal two minutes from time gave Ahli a 3-2 victory over Tractor Sazi in the final game of Group D which, alongside the draw they needed from the other fixture that night, put them through to the Champions League knockout rounds for the first time, in their sixth attempt.
Yet they were not done there. Drawn against Al Ain in the last 16, Ahli seemed likely to succumb to their domestic rivals, who had just won their 12th UAE top-flight crown as Ahli finished seventh, and were battle-hardened on the continent, too.
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However, Ahli upset Al Ain; three goals in five minutes at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium clinched it. One, two, three. The perfect combination. Al Ain failed to beat the count; they simply could not. Semi-finalists the season before, they were dumped out by the old adversary, in front of their own fans. Ahli’s ride rolled on.
In the quarter-finals, Ahli ousted Naft Tehran, 3-1 on aggregate, which included a rare victory by a UAE side at the Azadi Stadium, in Iran’s capital.
Then, the energy-sapping, adrenaline-filled semi-final second leg against Al Hilal. In eight previous clashes with the Saudi Arabians, Ahli had never registered a victory, and as the clock reached the fourth minute of injury time in Dubai it looked as if they were going to be hard-luck losers, unable to hold a 2-0 lead and about to be eliminated on the away-goals rule. But Kwon Kyung-won scored, Ahli celebrated and their improbable dream moved closer to becoming reality.
Now Guangzhou Evergrande: Chinese football’s heavyweight club, with a heavyweight coach and a heavyweight squad. Ahli are significantly less experienced at this stage of the competition, are not as used to contesting matches of this importance, but they will take confidence from a number of factors.
Typically, playing the role of the underdog can act as a stimulus, and Ahli certainly seem free of the shackles of expectation. Guangzhou, on the other hand, are expected to deliver the title, less than one month after they secured a fifth successive Chinese Super League crown. Their resources, the investment in the team, demand it. So too the large Chinese delegation — members of the club, members of the media — in Dubai for the first leg on Saturday.
Pundits expect Guangzhou to win and Ahli will hope that only burdens their opponents, however much it can to a team used to winning, one managed by the 2002 World Cup-winning coach, one boasting the tournament’s top scorer and a considerable portion of China’s national team. Guangzhou have been there, done it.
Ahli, of course, have not. But charting new territory has had a galvanising effect, helping the knockout rookies on their passage through the continent's premier club competition. It should continue to do. As Cosmin Olaroiu declared Friday, his history-makers can write another chapter.
Like Guangzhou, Ahli have quality, have a coach who can justifiably claim to be among the finest in Asia, who inspires his team and who seems able to extract one more surge from his players when all appears lost.
Despite everything that has gone before, and because of it, Ahli are within touching distance of the summit.
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