Al Khaldiya head coach Ali Ashoor expressed his pride in his team’s fighting spirit in their narrow loss – on aggregate – to Tractor FC of Iran in the round-of-16 of the AFC Champions League (ACL) Two.
The Bahrainis headed into the return match of their two-leg clash on Tuesday facing a 1-2 deficit. They then fell behind 0-2 to their heavily favoured opponents early in that contest in Tabriz, but were able to salvage a heart-stopping 3-3 draw after a brilliant second-half comeback led by Bahrain international striker Mahdi Abduljabbar, who had a brace, and Mohammed Al Rumaihi, who scored their other goal.
It was not enough, however, to stop them from exiting the competition, having lost 4-5 on aggregate.
“We are very sad to leave the ACL Two at this stage,” Ashoor told the GDN following their second-leg stalemate. “We had dreams to reach the semi-finals of the West, but we were not lucky.
“It was a difficult game, it was a difficult opponent, and a difficult stadium, with 50,000 spectators against us. Difficult weather conditions as well. It was not an easy or a normal match for us, but I am very proud of our players.
“We played a great match. We were very brave in the second half, and we almost scored a fourth goal. Unfortunately, the goalkeeper of Tractor saved the ball, and we also didn’t start well.”
Ashoor admitted that his team had a rough opening spell, during which they conceded the game’s first two goals in 32 minutes. But some changes right before the interval – plus an inspirational pep talk during the break – helped fuel their resurgence.
“We lost some bad moments, the atmosphere affected us, and we conceded two goals,” Ashoor said. “I tried to shake the team up by getting three subs on and changing the system to 4-4-2 from 4-5-1.
“During half-time, I spoke to the players and told them not to think about winning the game – just think about the first goal. Once we score a first goal, inshaallah we will score a second.
“I told them not to think about qualifying, but just think about coming back in the match and alhamdulillah we scored two goals. But we lost some concentration and focus in a bad moment and we conceded a third.
“We came back and that shows our players have great mental toughness. We fought until the last second to win this game, but Tractor made some tactical changes as well to defend.
“We are proud of our team – we represented Bahrain very well in the competition, and inshaallah we keep going in the coming competitions.”
Khaldiya were Bahrain’s lone representatives in this year’s ACL Two, which is the second-tier club competition of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Rebranded from the AFC Cup, it is one level below the AFC Champions League Elite and one above the AFC Challenge League.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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