Coach Dalic vows to address Al Ain ‘mistakes’
Says he was surprised by Al Shabab’s defensive approach in 0-0 draw in Group B opener
By Chief Sports Writer, Abu Dhabi
Al Ain coach Zlatko Dalic is determined to address his side’s ‘mistakes’ after they began their 2015 AFC Champions League campaign with a frustrating goalless draw at home to Saudi Arabia’s Al Shabab on Tuesday.
The Boss utterly dominated their opponents, who ‘parked the bus,’ to coin Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho’s infamous phrase and offered little going forward. The home side had 13 efforts at goal, yet lacked composure and a clinical edge at a packed and noisy Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium.
The garden city side also missed injured playmaker, Omar Abdul Rahman, although Jires Kembo-Ekoko shimmered with menace in attack without finding a killer touch.
The continental stalemate follows Al Ain’s 1-0 defeat away to Fujairah last Thursday, which kept them second in the Arabian Gulf League.
Dalic, whose men reached the semi-finals of the Champions League just five months ago, admitted his side needed to improve after their belowpar performances recently. He said: “We went into the match looking for an opening win for our fans, but we were surprised with the defensive display of Al Shabab, who stopped us and denied us from scoring chances that we created. We tried our best to score, but there were some mistakes which affected us.
“I hope that we can review these mistakes and fix them as soon as possible in order to have better results whether in the AFC Champions League or in the local league.”
The Croatian is also eager to see Asamoah Gyan, last season’s AFC Champions League top scorer with 12 goals rediscover his prolific touch after struggling for form and fitness following his Africa Cup of Nations exploits last month.
Gyan is not firing as before, but I hope he will become better from this game... He is our best scorer and one of our best players and our job is to back him. Hopefully, he will be ready soon. We need him.”
Zlatko Dalic (left)
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Al Ain coach
Pacheco happy
“Gyan is not firing as before, but I hope he will become better from this game,” Dalic said. “He is our best scorer and one of our best players and our job is to back him. Hopefully, he will be ready soon. We need him.”
His opposite number, Al Shabab coach Jaime Pacheco, was delighted with a point from the Group B opener. He said: “I’m totally satisfied with the point that we got from the match tonight, especially because it was from a tough match and against strong opponents like Al Ain.
“The performance of our players was great and we are happy to take a point back home. The players carried out all my instructions and they knew how to defend against the forwards of Al Ain.
“If we look back at the match and the chances that the two sides created, I think that the draw was fair for the two teams.”
Al Ain will next travel to tournament debutants Naft Tehran on Tuesday, The Iranian side lost 2-1 to Uzbekistan’s Pakhtakor Tashkent, who had a man sent off.