AFC
Dubai
Ten-man Al Wasl of the United Arab Emirates held on to claim a point on Monday in the league phase of the AFC Champions League Elite 2024-25 as Milos Milojevic’s side drew 1-1 with Qatar’s Al Sadd SC at the Zabeel Stadium on Monday.
Soufiane Bouftini was sent off with seven minutes remaining of regulation time to leave his side to hang on after Al Sadd’s Romain Saiss (61st minute) had cancelled out Alexis Perez’s 29th minute opener for the home side.
The result means Al Sadd remain unbeaten as the league phase reaches the halfway point with Felix Sanchez’s side moving onto eight points from four games while Al Wasl are a further point behind.
Al Sadd coach Felix Sanchez, said, “We deserved to win and get the three points but I am happy with my team’s performance. We played against a good and organised team and got an important point in our journey in the Champions League.
“We are on the right track towards qualification [for knockout stage], and this is the most important thing for us at the moment,” he added.
Yusuf Abdurisag squandered an early chance to put Al Sadd in front when he was played in by Akram Afif, the newly crowned AFC Player of the Year sliding the ball across the face of goal in the eighth minute but the striker sliced his close-range effort woefully wide.
Moments later Afif’s effort at the end of an Al Sadd counter was deflected into the side-netting by Bouftini as the visitors significant exerted early pressure without gaining a tangible reward.
Khaled Al Senani then parried Abdurisag’s effort from outside the area to safety in the 19th minute but, for all the visitors’ dominance, it was Al Wasl who should have taken the lead two minutes later.
Srdan Mijailovic’s cross on the run from the left was deftly controlled by Haris Seferovic with his first touch, the Swiss forward then rolling the ball across the face of goal to the unmarked Jonatas Santos, who somehow managed to shoot high over the bar.
Al Wasl did not have to wait much longer, however, to go in front.
Al Sadd midfielder Mohamed Camara gave the ball away cheaply in his own half to Perez and he strode forward to hit a right-foot shot from 30 yards that took a huge deflection off Boualem Khoukhi to beat wrongfooted goalkeeper Meshaal Barsham.
Camara shot over the bar and Saiss sent his free-kick well off target as Al Sadd sought an equaliser before the interval, with the leveller eventually coming 16 minutes into the second half.
The Al Wasl defence had only managed to half-clear an in-swinging Afif free-kick from the left and the ball was eventually sent back into the penalty area by Khoukhi, who whipped his cross from the right onto the head of Saiss inside the six yard box.
Cristo Perez’s shot almost caught out Al Senani with a little over 10 minutes remaining as Al Sadd sought the winner, the Al Wasl goalkeeper readjusting to punch clear, and soon after Bouftini was dismissed.
Referee Muhammad Nazmi Nasaruddin reviewed the Moroccan’s robust tackle on Mostafa Meshaal and deemed it dangerous enough to show the red card, but Al Wasl clung on despite being a man down to claim a point.
