News Center

Al Ain draw blank in 2-0 away defeat at Al Hilal

Al Hilal put the brakes on Al Ain’s AFC Champions League charge, defeating the newly-confirmed Etisalat Pro League winners 2-0 at the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday night. The Match Day 5 result sees Al Hilal overtake Al Ain in Group D, as both teams were equal on 6 points each before the game, and Al Ain must win their final group game against Esteghlal next week if they are to stand any chance of qualifying to the final 16 of the competition.

Al Ain suffered a setback as early as the 5th minute, when Salem Al Dossari took a short corner and received a return pass from Mohammad Al Shalhoub on the edge of the area, and Al Dossari then curled a stunning right-footed strike in from distance to put Al Hilal 1-0 up in quite some style. From taking an early lead, Al Hilal dominated the game and Al Ain struggled to get a foothold as they were overrun in midfield, and Al Ain were restricted to aiming long balls at Asamoah Gyan, but the Ghanaian frontman was tightly marked and unable to cause any serious threats. Al Hilal piled on the pressure and got their reward as they extended the lead to two goals in the 24th minute. A give-and-go between Yasser Al Qahtani and Wesley was started and finished by the Brazilian striker, after Al Qahtani turned deftly to return the ball for Wesley to stride onto and chip a fine left-footed finish into the Al Ain goal, making it 2-0. Two minutes later Asamoah Gyan had Al Ain’s best chance of the first half as he rose high above his markers, but failed to direct his header on target. Mohammed Abdulrahman found himself in space to shoot in the 31st minute as Al Ain tried to claw their way back into the game, but the diminutive midfielder got his effort wrong as it sliced wide of the post.

The second half began more energetically for Al Ain but Alex Brosque missed a huge opening to pull one back as Omar Abdulrahman’s perfect pass put him clean through on goal, but the Australian striker blazed his right-footed shot over with only the goalkeeper to beat. Three minutes later Jires Kembo-Ekoko saw his goalbound shot headed away, and in the 61st minute a left-footed effort from Brosque was stopped by the strong hand of Al Hilal’s goalkeeper. A matter of minutes later and Al Hilal could have gone three goals ahead as Nawaf Al Abed set up Wesley but his bouncing shot went just over the bar. Al Ain survived another scare seconds later when Nawaf Al Abed elected to pass to Wesley instead of take a shot himself, and the Brazilian’s strike was gathered at the second attempt by Mahmood Al Mas. With the game more lively and end-to-end, Mohammed Ahmed did well down the right for Al Ain before crossing for Omar Abdulrahman, whose effort was headed on by Gyan but the Al Hilal keeper was equal to it. In the 75th minute Al Hilal’s Abdullah Al Zori saw his exquisite curling effort with the outside of his boot cannon back off the woodwork as time ran out for Al Ain to stage a comeback and the game finished 2-0.