Al Wahda pip Al Rayyan to stay in contention

Omar Khribin’s second half penalty earned UAE’s Al Wahda a 1-0 win over nine-man Al Rayyan at Goa’s Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Friday to keep alive their hopes of advancing to the knockout rounds of the 2021 AFC Champions League from Group E.

Khibin converted from the spot 19 minutes from time to give Henk ten Cate’s side victory and move the club from Abu Dhabi on to seven points from their first four games of this year’s campaign.

The win was Al Wahda’s second in three days over the Qatari side and came after Ahmed Abdul Maqsoud and Franck Kom had both been sent off for Laurent Blanc’s team before the 2017 AFC Player of the Year scored the game’s only goal.

A tame first half was largely devoid of the drama that marked the last 30 minutes of the teams’ previous encounter on Wednesday when Al Wahda scored three times to win that match, although everything changed during first half injury time when Maqsoud was sent off.

Tim Matavz had come closest to opening the scoring when the Slovenian striker unleashed a volley from outside the area in the 24th minute that Fahad Younis was forced to palm over the bar.

Ten minutes later Fares Jumaa, who had scored a dramatic winner for Al Wahda in the previous encounter, attempted to direct a header towards goal, only for his effort to be well off target.

But the game changed as time ticked towards the interval when Abdulla Anwar attempted to skip past Maqsoud, only for the defender to lean on the forward as he tried to sprint past and, as a result of the foul, referee Ahmed Al Ali showed the red card.

Al Rayyan survived unscathed until the last 20 minutes, but their hopes of holding on for a draw ended when Kom was judged to have fouled Jumaa in the area and Al Ali pointed to the spot.

After booking the Cameroonian defender for his initial foul, the referee pulled out a second yellow card for Kom for dissent to send him to the changing rooms and leave Al Rayyan with nine players on the field.

Khrbin stepped up to confidently strike the penalty into the corner of Younis’ goal to give Al Wahda the win and, in the process, end Al Rayyan’s hopes of progressing to the next phase of the competition.

Ismaeil Matar’s sending off in injury time at the end of the game took some of the gloss off the win for Al Wahda, who next face group leaders Persepolis on Monday.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Tractor FC got their first win of the campaign as they overcame 10-man Air Force Club of Iraq 1-0 in a Group B match on Friday.

The result sees Tractor climb to six points, keeping their qualification hopes alive, while Air Force Club freeze at two points as their search for a first win and a first goal continues.

Tractor came racing out of the blocks and were in the lead within two minutes. Mehdi Tikdarinejad dribbled his way into the box from the right flank and fed Peyman Babaei who tried to convert first-time, but his shot was parried by goalkeeper Fahad Taleb into the path of Tikdarinejad who swept home his side’s opening goal.

Air Force Club suffered a blow as defender Ehasn Haddad was stretched off at the half-hour mark to be replaced by Sameh Saeed.