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Al Wahda snatch second win beating Piroozi 2-0 in last AFC Champions League match

 

Abu Dhabi-based Al Wahda Football Team finally snatched their first win in their sixth and last 2011 AFC Champions League game played on Tuesday night May 10 at Al Nahyan Stadium in front of only 933 spectators. They maintained a 2-0 victory over lowly visiting team Piroozi of Iran and despite of this win, Al Wahda's hopes of reaching the last 16 of the continental competition came to an end. They raised their tally to six points off a lone win, three draws and two defeats, a balance that see them in third place followed by Piroozi at the bottom of Group "C" with five points.

Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia and Bunyodkor of Uzbekistan have qualified to the next stage as leaders of this Group, with the former sitting on top of the ladder with 13 points following their Tuesday's win over second-placed the Uzbek side Bunyodkor ( 8 points) by a lone goal in their last tie held at the losers' pitch.

The winners put more pressure on their rivals' defense from the very start of the match and they came close to score in many occasions through young players Salim Saleh, Mohammad Al Shehhy, Brazilian Hugo and defenders Mahmoud Khamis and Fahd Masoud. Al Shehhy received a long ball from keeper Mutaz Abdullah before making a slick move sending it to his colleague Salim Saleh who did not hesitate to drive the ball into the back of the net giving the hosts an early lead only 13 minutes into the game. This goal brought the encounter to life with the winners taking the priority afterwards. Al Wahda's defender Mahmoud Khamis tried to surprise Piroozi's goalkeeper Rahman Ahmadi off a long-range severe volley, but the goalie saved bravely. Al Ahmadi came again to make another superb save when Basheir Saeed launched a rocket-like shot off a dead ball but the Iranian keeper deflected it to a corner five minutes before the break. The first and only attempt for the visitors in the first half came via Mohammad Nouri whose volley hit the work wood two minutes to time as the first session ended goalless.

The hosts' team threatened the hosts' goal three times after the break, two of them were cleared away by defenders Hamdan Al Kamali and Basheir Saeed and the third was saved by goalkeeper Mutaz Abdullah. Basheir found a nice sitter in the 63rd minute but his header just wide and Brazilian Hugo made another attempt but it turned to a corner. The home team's continuous forays yielded the second goal when Fahad Masoud switched the ball from the right flank for Mohammad Al Shehhy to head it home to make it 2-0 with 20 minutes to go. The two teams made some good efforts afterwards but failed to produce more goals.

On the other hand Emirates team lost a valuable chance to go into the 16 stage of the 2011 AFC Champions League following their 0-2 defeat to Al Rayyan of Qatar in the last round match played yesterday at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Doha. The losers needed to add three points to their tally and at the same time wait for Zob Ahan of Iran to overcome the Saudi side Al Shabab. But both dreams did not come true as both of them, Emirates and Zob Ahan were beaten by their rivals. Abdul Ghafoor Murad put the hosts into the lead with a perfect header in the 74th minute and his colleague Ahmad Alaa made it 2-0 in the 90th minute to dash the Emirates' hopes.

By the end of the sixth round, Zob Ahan are classified on top of Group "D" followed by Al Shabab in the second place on 11 points with Emirates and Al Rayan in 3rd and 4th spots after collecting 6 and 4 points respectively.