Al Ain will regret a missed opportunity to vault into second place in Group F of the Asian Champions League (ACL), but the Pro League side also are likely to acknowledge Hangzhou Greentown had the better of the scoring opportunities in their scoreless draw last night.
The UAE club fought off Hangzhou's attempts to find a winner in the final 10 minutes and took a point from their match seen by 26,973 in the city of 1.9 million people in eastern China.
Alexandre Gallo, the Al Ain coach, called it a "morale-boosting draw" in comments reported on the Asian confederation website.
"It has indeed brightened our campaign in the tournament," he said. "It was a hard-fought draw and we didn't have many chances because Hangzhou looked determined to beef up their defence first."
FC Seoul lead the group on seven points, following a 1-1 draw with Nagoya Grampus last night, with Al Ain in third with one point in two matches. Hangzhou are second on four points.
Al Ain had two half chances in the waning minutes, the first a long-range shot by Ibrahima Keita, the Ivorian midfielder, that was on target in the 87th minute but lacked the pace to beat the goalkeeper Jiang Bo.
One minute later, the left-back Mohammed Salem made a long run up the flank and powered a heavy shot from a sharp angle that Jiang was able to parry.
At the other end of the pitch, Ismail Rabea, the Al Ain goalkeeper, was particularly busy in the dying minutes. The greatest danger to his side came in the 85th minute, when the Honduran forward Luis Martinez aimed a point-blank header on goal. Rabea, however, reacted quickly enough to push the shot just over the bar.
Martinez sent a header over in the 65th minute when he got in between the Al Ain centre-backs but failed to test Rabea.
Omar Abdulrahman, the national team midfielder, had a strong game for Al Ain, holding and distributing with aplomb, and the Brazilian forward Elias Riberio worked tirelessly.
Wu Jingui, the Hangzhou coach, credited Al Ain with a strong performance.
"They did excellent homework in analysing our team," he said. "They did a good job in defence. Al Ain is a very experienced team and they exhibited confident play in the crucial game."
Al Ain and their 43-man travelling party will remain in the Far East and go to Japan next week for an ACL match with Nagoya Grampus on Tuesday.
Gallo is already looking forward to a home match with Hangzhou on April 19. "I think we will beat Hangzhou in our next game at home," he said.
* Compiled by Paul Oberjuerge