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Al Ahli beat Kazma 1-0 in the GCC Clubs Semifinal first leg match

Dubai-based Al Ahli came out with an unconvincing victory when they beat Kazma of Kuwait by a solitary goal in the first leg match of the 26th GCC Clubs Champions league and President's Cup semifinal stage held this evening at Rashid Stadium. Brazilian Jaja netted the all-important goal of the game in the 30th minute off a stand ball when a defender fouled Ismail Al Hamadi outside the box. Jaja sent a perfect shot that went straight into the right hand side of Kazma's goalkeeper Shihab Kankoni. But with this narrow win, things seem to be difficult for the winners when they travel to Kuwait to take on their rivals in a decisive match to determine the qualifiers for the final game.

Al Ahli will face Kazma in their away encounter on October 18th while Al Shabab, who will meet Al Arabi of Kuwait tomorrow, are to battle it out in the second leg match against hosts Al Arabi on the same date.

The hosts, Al Ahli, tried their best to maintain a big win and score a number of goals that can help them and ease their stint in the away game. So for making their dreams come true, they pressed hard from the word go giving the visiting team difficult time. They created a number of scoring chances but they could not find the back of the net. The visitors played below the par and their performance was marred by a bagful of errors.

Tariq Ahmed lost the first chance in the match for Al Ahli when he faced goalie Shihab Kankoni who saved the ball with his leg only five minutes into the play and Jaja squandered a similar sitter afterwards.

The visitors launched some weak forays looking for a goal via Rodrego from Argentine and Yousuf Nasser but their attempts were easily spoiled by Al Ahli's defenders led by Lebanese Yousuf Mohammad and Khalid Mohammad.

Al Ahli's coach Ivan Hasek made some substitutes after the break when he fielded in Ahmad Khalil instead of Ismail Al Hamadi who was a constant headache for Kazma's defenders and brought in later Faisal Khalil to replace Ahmed Khamis who lost two chances in front of the goal mouth. Kazma's substitute Fahd Al Fahd came close to score in the dying moments but his shot was deflected by Al Ahli's goalkeeper Yousuf Abdullah to a corner.

Commenting on the game, Ivan Hasek said that his front liners lost all scoring opportunities and if they had scored some of them, Al Ahli would have been in a better condition with a good chance to proceed to the final match. "We won the first half and we will play the second session in Kuwait", he said. Hasek was pleased with the performance of the team's defenders noting that they played better than what they did in the Etisalat Cup Competition.