Al Jazira go down against Esteghlal in Continental fight

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Esteghlal Khuzestans Vahid Sheikhveysi defends during an Asian Champions League Group B football match against UAEs Al Jazira at Mohammed Bin Zayed.
Esteghlal Khuzestan's Vahid Sheikhveysi defends during an Asian Champions League Group B football match against UAE's Al Jazira at Mohammed Bin Zayed.

Abu Dhabi - Cameroonian forward Aloys Nong's first-minute goal was enough to see tournament debutants Esteghlal Khouzestan add another victory to their 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia's Al Fateh.

By Ashwani Kumar

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Published: Mon 27 Feb 2017, 10:00 PM

Last updated: Tue 28 Feb 2017, 1:00 AM

Al Jazira's winless streak in the AFC Champions League hit 11 games with loss against Iranian side Esteghlal Khouzestan in the Group B encounter at the Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium on Monday night.
Cameroonian forward Aloys Nong's first-minute goal was enough to see tournament debutants Esteghlal Khouzestan add another victory to their 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia's Al Fateh.
Coach Henk ten Cate's foresightedness turned out to be a bane as the Dutchman concentrated solely on the Arabian Gulf League crown to the Asian Continental glory. Al Jazira are the Arabian Gulf League leader and play Al Ahli in an away match this Saturday. Ten Cate opted to safeguard his players and started without No. 1 stopper Ali Khasif, star striker Ali Mabkhout, midfielders Park Jong-woo and Mbark Boussoufa, defenders Fares Jumaa and Mohammed Al Attas.
He fielded a whole bunch of stars in the second half but the damage was done by then.
Esteghlal Khouzestan scored in the first minute through a throw-in from defender Peyman Shirzadi. Striker Arash Afshin headed to Hassan Beyt Saeed, who set it up for Aloys Nong to volley it past Al Jazira keeper Khaled Al Senani.
Al Jazira pushed forwarded but lacked ideas and vision in midfield. In the 29th minute, though, there was an opportunity but Brazilian defender Joao Carlos couldn't find direction on a cross from striker Ailton Almeida. Towards the end of first half there were promising runs from Sultan Al Shamsi and Almeida but they failed to find an equaliser.
After the break, Ten Cate, realising the visitors cane be bundled, started with Boussoufa.  And in the 57th minute, he got in Mabkhout for winger Al Shamsi. Soon, there was more bite in the attack.
And in the 60th minute, the first real flourish came from Al Jazira as Mabkhout and Boussoufa combined in a one-two. There were threatening free-kicks taken by Boussoufa, one of them was well-connected by Musallem Fayez but lacked power. In the 63rd minute, Jong-woo took to filed replacing Mohammed Jamal. And Al Jazira were buzzing again. There were at least five attacks in the 10 minutes the trio of substitutes was on the field.
At the other end, Hassan Beyt Saeed hit the crossbar through a free-kick to show the visitors were in no mood to relent.
The closing stages saw end to end stuff and four added minutes also didn't reap an equaliser for the home side.
With this result, Al Jazira remain winless against the Iranian side with four losses and a draw from total of five matches. Al Jazira had lost the first round of the tournament 3-0 against Qatar side Lekhwiya.
ashwani@khaleejtimes.com


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