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| AFC Cup |
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| Mukherjee explains Sana’a setback |
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| East Bengal coach Aloke Mukherjee said poor preperations, contributed to the 1-0 defeat to Ahli Sanaa. |
SANA'A - East Bengal coach Aloke Mukherjee admitted a number of factors prevented his side from playing as well as they can after they suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Ahli Sana'a in their final Group B game in the AFC Cup on Wednesday night.
The only goal of the game came in the 44th minute through striker Ali Al Nono, who broke the offside trap and bore down on goal before sending a right-foot shot past Subrata Paul.
East Bengal finished the game with ten men when Nigerian defender Bolaji Majekodunmi was shown his second yellow card in the last minute of the game.
The result means East Bengal missed the opportunity to progress to the quarterfinals of the competition as they finish with seven points while Safa currently lead the group with nine.
"The referee was not good as the goal came from an offside position," said Mukherjee.
"The atmosphere affected us while the high altitude affected the players and they couldn't play as well as they can.
"I was surprised with the below-par performance from our players in the first half and while we had a good game in the second half we couldn't create any notable chances.
"We didn't have good preparations for the match as it was our last game of the season and things didn't go as we expected."
Ahli Sana'a coach Mohamad Al Yaraimi, meanwhile, conceded that though he was happy with his side's first win in the AFC Cup, he was disappointed his players didn't convert more of the chances they had.
"I'm happy that we claimed our first win in the tournament," he said.
"However, it is a shame that we missed several scoring chances because we should have got a bigger win after dominating the game.
"We lacked the experience tonight as we had a lot of young players and that was clear with the chances that we missed tonight.
"We played a good formation and stuck to our tactics as Ali Al Nono returned from injury and scored a goal.
"I brought Adel Al Salemi in the second half to give more support to our attack but the lack of experience prevailed and we won the match with a single goal."
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