The National's Sport cover for the Sunday, November 8 issue, featuring Al Ahli's Ismail Al Hammadi in the 0-0 first leg of the Asian Champions League final.
Ahli and Guangzhou were left deadlocked in Dubai, leaving it down to a true winner-take-all match in China for the second leg:
“Cosmin Olaroiu said he wanted his Al Ahli players to fight, to make themselves heroes, in the home leg of the final of the continent’s leading club competition.
“Even if Abdulaziz Haikal took him too literally, and was shown a red card near the end of a nervy encounter at the Rashid Stadium, the Romanian manager still professed himself satisfied with the outcome.
“In truth, Ahli did not venture a great deal on home territory, and so gained little. But a goalless draw in the opening salvo of the Asian Champions League final is something to work with when they make the trip to China in two weeks time.”
John McAuley, meanwhile, highlights the big spark brought by little Al Hammadi to the match:
“Ismail Al Hammadi: determined but diminutive in stature, hardly Spartan.
“When Cosmin Olaroiu used his pre-match news conference to evoke another Herculean effort from his Al Ahli players, calling upon his ‘fighters, his Spartans’ to come through against Guangzhou Evergrande in Saturday’s Asian Champions League final first leg, it seemed slightly incongruous where Al Hammadi is concerned.
“After all, the compact little winger is hardly the most imposing of players, standing at 1.64m, squat and sturdy, but more creative than combative.
“Yet against Guangzhou Evergrande, Al Hammadi led the charge, the one bright spark in a match that offered only fleeting moments of genuine quality.”
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