Abu Dhabi: Al Ain’s scratchy 1-0 win against Bani Yas in the Arabian Gulf League opener at the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium on Sunday might have lot to do with their AFC Champions League workload.
But more importantly, the purple brigade managed to get those three vital points to kick start their league campaign on a high.
Al Ain’s star playmaker and captain Omar Abdul Rahman accepted that it was hard work for him and his team.
“The guys worked hard but we missed a lot of chances from outside the box. We created several chances to get a goal but missed. In the end, we had to hold on to the solitary goal that Caio got,” said Abdul Rahman.
“It is the beginning of this season and you have to gain those three points regardless of the performance. Today’s performance was good but weren’t good enough to get those goals. I hope the next match we will more effective.”
Coach Zlatko Dalic was quite happy with the way his wards went about their business saying, “Thankfully, we scored a goal and kept a clean sheet to continue for the second game, which is important for us.
“For us, three points is most important from this game, it’s the only thing I asked from my players. We played five days ago in the Champions League and did everything there, so it was not easy to come back to our league.”
Dalic revealed that it has been tough for him to get things together as most of his players have national team commitments as well in between.
“Al Ain is the only team that has several players in the national squad we also lost Mohammad Ahmad due to injury and he will be out for four to five months. It becomes tough for a coach,” said the Croatian.
Bani Yas captain Yousef Jaber, speaking about his team’s showing, said: “We performed well today but it wasn’t God willing to give us the chance to win. We will flip the page and focus on the next match. We did it as per instructions of our coach and tried to execute all his plans but it wasn’t our day.”
Bani Yas coach Pablo Repetto will have some thinking to do about his combination upfront. Argentinian Joaquin Larrivey needs to be fed with more balls by Fellipe Bastos and company. However, their defence-line looked rock solid and that will be a big plus moving forward.
“It was a difficult game, especially to begin the league. Because of an individual effort they scored a goal and we have to return with no points.
“I’m not happy with the result but I’m convinced with my team’s spirit and performance. In general, I’m satisfied with the level of the players,” said Repetto.
Results
Al Nasr 4 Dhafra 2
Al Ain 1 Bani Yas 0
Standings
RK TEAM P W D L GS GA GD PTS
1 Al Ahli 1 1 0 0 4 0 4 3
2 Al Nasr 1 1 0 0 4 2 2 3
3 Al Jazira 1 1 0 0 3 1 2 3
4 Al Shabab 1 1 0 0 2 1 1 3
5 Kalba 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 3
6 Al Ain 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 3
7 Al Wahda 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
8 Hatta 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
9 Sharjah 1 0 0 1 1 2 -1 0
10 Dibba 1 0 0 1 0 1 -1 0
11 Al Dhafra 1 0 0 1 2 4 0 -2 0
12 Bani Yas 1 0 0 1 0 1 -1 0
13 Al Wasl 1 0 0 1 1 3 -2 0
14 Emirates 1 0 0 1 0 4 -4 0
