Al Ain suffered a second successive defeat in the Asian Champions League when the Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr came from a goal down to clinch a 2-1 victory at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium on Tuesday.
Omar Yaisien had given the hosts an early lead but the visitors hit back twice in the second half through Mukhtar Ali and the Moroccan Abderrazak Hamdallah to return with full points.
The result left Al Ain at the bottom of the Group D table and took Nassr’s tally to four points after their 2-2 draw against Al Sadd in last week’s opener, level with the Qatari side.
Al Ain had taken the lead after 18 minutes when Togolese international Kodjo Laba worked his way down the right flank and sent over a low cross to the unmarked Yaisien and the 19-year-old midfielder finished past Nassr goalkeeper Brad Jones.
Al Ain had a couple of chances to double their lead only for Yaisien to lose control of the ball inside the area with only Jones to beat and then Caio Canedo fired wide from outside the area.
They were made to pay for those missed opportunities when Nassr struck 12 minutes into the second half, with Ali connecting with a Nordin Amrabat free-kick to finish at the near post.
The visitors grabbed the winner ten minutes from time, after a dreadful error by Khalid Eisa. The Al Ain goalkeeper failed to clear the ball from outside the area and Hamdallah stole in to fire the ball into an empty net.
It was hugely frustrating for Eisa, who had pulled off a couple of excellent saves to deny the visitors an earlier lead.
The Emirati international pushed out curling shot from Amrabat and then blocked a powerful header from the ensuing corner to deny the Moroccan winger once again.
At least Al Ain had produced a far better performance than last week's humiliating 4-0 home thrashing by the Iranian outfit Sepahan.
In Group C, Sharjah came twice from behind to salvage a 2-2 result over Iranian side Persepolis at the Sharjah Stadium.
All the goals came in the first half as Ali Alipour twice put the visitors ahead, only for Sharjah to hit back through Mohammed Khalfan and Ryan Mendes.
Sharjah sit bottom of Group C, level with Persepolis on one point, as Saudi side Al-Taawoun top the table with a maximum six from two games.