Captain Ismail Matar said there were plenty of positives his Al Wahda side could glean from their first match in the Asian Champions League group stage in six years despite a 2-1 defeat to Al Rayyan.
The Abu Dhabi club were beaten by the Qatar Stars League champions in their Group D opener at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in Doha on Tuesday, and were unlucky not to return with a point after Ahmed Al Hammadi’s effort was ruled out for offside.
Gonzalo Viera put the home side ahead after 13 minutes but the lead was cancelled out by a Rim Chang-woo equaliser 10 minutes before the break. Victor Caceres popped up with the winner for Michael Laudrup’s side on the hour-mark.
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Al Rayyan lead the group after the first round of matches following Persepolis of Iran and Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal playing out a 1-1 draw.
Matar praised his side for a “hugely satisfying opening game” with many of Javier Aguirre’s side playing continental football for the first time.
“We have a lot of youngsters playing at this level for the first time and I thought, as a team, we did pretty well for a first game and playing away,” he said. “I think we can take a lot of positives from this game. We had our chances but we couldn’t make it count. However, after this performance I would like to think we can improve for the next [game].”
“We have seven days before our next game [v Persepolis] and looking forward to a better result that can keep our chances alive in the competition.”
The hosts got off to a bright start and were ahead when Viera headed in a rebound after a scramble in the Wahda box.
Rim pulled the visitors level with a superb volley from a Matar corner. The South Korean also made an excellent save with a sliding effort to thwart Sergio Garcia’s shot from crossing the line while Sebastian Tagliabue’s effort at the other end went straight at the Rayyan goalkeeper Oumar Barry.
Rayyan regained the lead on the hour when a free kick from Nathan Otavio was headed back across the face of goal by Viera and Caceres headed home from inside the six-yard area.
Wahda came close to levelling the score twice. A curling free kick from Balazs Dzsudzsak narrowly evaded Barry’s near post and Tagliabue’s powerfully struck header was pushed over the bar by the Guinea-born goalkeeper.
Wahda did have the ball in the back of the net when Al Hammadi squeezed home a Tagliabue cross but the goal was ruled out for offside.
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