AL AIN 2 LEKHWIYA 1
Al Ain - Diaky 13', Gyan 66' Lekhwiya - Weiss 40'
Man of the match - Asamoah Gyan (Al Ain)
AL AIN // From the outset there was a buzz at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium over the future of the Al Ain coach Quique Sanchez Flores.
He was asked to clarify after leading his team to a 2-1 result over Lekhwiya in the Asian Champions League opener and their first win in three games at the new stadium.
Sanchez Flores revealed his future at the club was not in his own hands.
“I worked at Al Ahli for 20 months to win the President’s Cup [and the League Cup] have worked only five months and have taken Al Ain to the final of the same competition,” the Spaniard said. “I can’t do magic. I am a normal coach and I can only work over a period of time to produce results. It is up to the club to make that decision, but until such time I will continue with my work as before.”
Ibrahim Diaky, who scored the opening goal, came in support of his coach when he said: “We know we are going through a difficult period and the coach told us to just go out there and do our best.
“He didn’t put any pressure on the players and that’s what we went out there and achieved.”
Diaky opened the scoring and Asamoah Gyan regained the lead after Vladimir Weiss had struck the equaliser shortly before the break.
“It was a good game to win against a team like Lekhwiya because they are a very good team both technically and physically, and they are leading the Qatari league at the moment,” Sanchez Flores said.
“I am very happy with my players as they played collectively as a team. They defended well, attacked well and used the counter attack well. I told them before the game all teams are starting from zero so to go out there and play true to their potential and that’s what they did.”
According to Sanchez Flores the players were better motivated for the ACL than the Arabian Gulf League, which they have no chance to win.
“This is how the human brain works,” the coach said. “The ACL is a new competition and it is easy to get the players motivated than in a competition where the chances are pretty low. The preparation for this game was like for the President’s Cup. The players know they have a chance to win a trophy. It doesn’t surprise me because these players have quality to face any team.”
Diaky’s early goal was on target from a rebound. Mirel Radoi’s effort crashed against the near post and Alex Brosque couldn’t control the rebound that came back like a tracer-bullet on his follow-through, but it took the pace off and sent it into the robust Al Ain midfielder’s path.
Yassine El Ghanassy had begun the move from his own half for Gyan to set up Radoi’s 25-yard shot.
Youssef Msakni split the Al Ain defence with a superb through pass for Weiss to score with a looping left footer after good first-time control to get past Mohanad Salem, the Al Ain centre back.
Gyan regained the lead with a rocket that hit the inside of the bar and slammed into the back of the net, thanks to a through pass from Ahmed Barman.
“We didn’t play as well in the second half, as well as we did in the first half, as we lost the freshness,” said Eric Gerets, the Lekhwiya coach.
“At the end we are disappointed because we wanted to return with at least one point. We had some chances to score in the first half and we went in to the second half with the same feeling but for some strange reason we couldn’t break through.”
apassela@thenational.ae
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