The UAE’s continued participation in this season’s AFC Champions League Elite will hinge on the second leg of Al Wasl’s tie with Al Sadd in Doha next week.
The Dubai side were held to a 1-1 draw by Qatar’s most successful club at Zabeel Stadium on Monday night in the first leg of the round of 16.
The winners of the encounter will advance to a new-look finals phase of the competition, with all the remaining rounds due to be played in Jeddah.
Given the number and quality of chances they created, the UAE champions should really be booking their flights to Saudi Arabia already. Instead, they passed up a variety of clear opportunities to put the encounter beyond Al Sadd.
Ali Saleh, the Al Wasl captain, was guilty of the most glaring miss, having given his side the advantage right at the start of the tie.
The fog from the pyro display of the Al Wasl ultras was still lingering when Saleh cleverly found space in the Al Sadd box at a corner to score the opener in the third minute.
The hosts then dominated the half, and should have doubled their lead when Joao Pedro found Saleh on the six yard line. With the goal at his mercy, the winger blazed over.
Al Wasl were similarly dominant right after the restart, when they had four more good chances to score. All were passed up, and the feeling increased that Al Sadd might get something from the game.
So it proved just after the hour mark when Abdullah Al Yazidi headed the leveller after he was expertly picked out by Akram Afif, the Al Sadd captain.
“It was a hard game but we played a great game,” Saleh said. “A draw means it is still open for the second game, and we will try our best.
“We missed a lot and, unfortunately, I missed a big chance also, but we are ready for the next game. Of course, I’m not happy I missed that, but I needed to leave it behind and work hard for the rest of the game.
“It was a tough game and there was no time to feel sorry for ourselves. Now everything will be decided in Qatar.”
Al Wasl are the lone remaining side from the UAE in Asia’s top competition. Al Ain, the holders, saw their title defence ended at the group stage.
Milos Milojevic, the Al Wasl coach, preferred to focus on the excellence of his side’s performance rather than the misses. He said the tie was unlikely to be decided by the first game anyway.
“I think we were the better team over the whole game, but we allowed Al Sadd two chances and unfortunately the second one was expensive for us,” Milojevic said.
“In the whole picture I think we played a really good game. We positioned ourselves well, had a good flow of the ball, and with a bit of luck could have been in a better position ahead of the next game.
“I had a feeling ahead that everything would be decided then. It will not be an easy task but if we want to go further we have to make it there.
“It does not matter how long it takes, whether we do it in regular time or added time, it is what we need to do to win.”
Felix Sanchez, the Al Sadd manager who was in charge of Qatar at the 2022 World Cup on home soil, is grateful his side are still in the tie.
“Al Wasl played a very good game and it was very challenging for us,” Sanchez said.
“We lost two players [to injury] and hopefully they are recovered for the next game. It is a result that leaves everything open for the next game.”
