Al Nasr rally to hold Al Shabab to draw to keep semi-final hopes alive

Ibrahima Toure, in blue, wins an aerial ball duel against Renan Garcia during the semi-final, first leg of the GCC Clubs Championships. Sarah Dea / The National

Al Nasr Ibrahima Toure 36

Al Shabab Henrique Luvannor 2

DUBAI // Al Nasr have kept alive their hopes of reaching a second consecutive GCC Club Championships final after fighting back to share the honours with Al Shabab in the first leg of the semi-finals.

The hosts were a goal down in the second minute after Henrique Luvannor scored, but the champions fought back to level the scores before the break and keep their hopes alive for the second leg, which is on Tuesday.

Shabab, who beat Al Jazira 4-2 in an Arabian Gulf League match at the weekend, took the lead after 65 seconds, catching the Nasr defence cold.

Dawood Ali crossed the ball for Edgar Bruno, who patted it back for Luvannor to complete the job.

The visitors should have doubled their tally in the 35th minute, but were denied by the goalpost as Bruno muscled his way into the box and tried to place the ball to the far corner.

Seconds later, the scores were level thanks to a brilliant ball from Mahmoud Khamis for Ibrahima Toure in the box, which allowed the Senegalese to nod into the far corner.

Nasr had a couple of other good opportunities in the first half, the first in the 34th minute when the Shabab keeper just kept out Brett Holman’s stinging right-footer. The Australian had another near miss in the 40th minute.

The hosts seemed to lose some steam coming back from the break and there were few further chances with Mohammed Ayad’s header in the 56th minute that was cleared off the line by Toure the best.

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