Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Riyadh: Ailton scored the only goal of the game as Al Hilal maintained their push for a place in the knockout phase of the 2016 AFC Champions League on Wednesday with a 1-0 win over Al Jazira of the United Arab Emirates.
The Brazilian headed home the winner nine minutes before the end of the first half to move the Saudi side on to eight points from four games, one point behind Group C leaders Tractorsazi.
Al Jazira, meanwhile, have been eliminated from the competition, sitting at the bottom of the group having picked up a solitary point and are three points adrift of third-placed Pakhtakor from Uzbekistan.
“The win is very important for us and I’m satisfied with the performance of the players,” said Al Hilal coach Georgios Donis. “Everyone knows that we are going through a tough period and we have a lot of pressure due to the heavy match schedule.
“We created many scoring chances but we couldn’t convert those chances into goals and this affected us a lot. We should try our best in order to fix this issue and hopefully we can improve in the next matches.”
With just six minutes on the clock, Yasir Al Shahrani should have done better when he tried his luck from 12 yards out, only for goalkeeper Ali Khaseif to push his shot to safety.
Twelve minutes later, Al Hilal missed the best opportunity of the game when Abdulaziz Al Dawsari sprinted down the right before cutting inside along the byline and firing in a low cross that was narrowly missed by Yousef Al Salem at the near post and Ailton further back.
It took Al Jazira until halfway through the period to register their first attempt, and it came when former Al Hilal midfielder Thiago Neves curled his free kick from just outside the area over Fahad Al Thunayan’s crossbar.
That was to prove one of the Abu Dhabi side’s few sights of goal and, with nine minutes left in the half, Al Hilal took a deserved lead. Al Dawsari’s cross from the left was headed down by Al Jazira’s Kenwyne Jones and onto the head of Ailton, and the Brazilian steered the ball into the back of the net.
With the one goal lead, Al Hilal continued to control the game. Ten minutes after the restart, Al Dawsari took aim from outside the area only to find the arms of goalkeeper Khaseif and, with five minutes to go, Salem Al Dawsari lifted the ball over the bar when he should have doubled Al Hilal’s advantage.
Three minutes from time, Al Jazira had a rare sight of goal when substitute Ahmed Al Hashmi raced into the penalty area, but his attempt found the side netting.
“I’m happy with the performance of our players against Al Hilal despite the defeat,” said Al Jazira coach Henk ten Cate. “We had a good performance in the first half and we surprised our opponents but we couldn’t score from the chances that we created in the early minutes.”
“We tried our best to make a comeback but we lacked the necessary experience and fighting spirit to level the scores. In general, I’m happy with the performance of the players and hopefully we can learn from the lessons of tonight.”
Photo: AFP