Our first team of football succeeded in achieving their first ever victory in the AFC Champions League Group Stage fixture over the Tajik Side Al Istiklol by two clean goals at Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium and kicked off at 7 pm. With this result the team rached 4 points in the third position in Group E.
The first half ended in a goalless draw despite the obvious superiority of our team who managed to control the ball in the maneuvering areas due to the due to the movements of both midfielders Asem MAdibo and Ibrahim Kader which led to blocking the Al Istiklol lines with more opportunities in our offensive line with the sprints of both Al Moez Ali and Isaaq Al Hajj, noting that the referee overruled a goal in favor of Al Istiklol due to offside using the VAR technology.
In the second half, Michael Olunga succeeded in decoding Al Istiklol net in the 47th minute with a powerful header that went into the net, announcing the team’s lead after the referee returned to the VAR technology.
Al Duhail goal made Al Istiklol players abandon their defensive caution and leave their areas searching for the equalizer, which opened the spaces for our players who continued their attack, searching for their second goal, which almost came in the 70th minute after the cross ball that Olunga sent to Al Moez inside the penalty area but missed its way to the net, until Engineer Olunga succeeded in the 89th minute in scoring the second goal with a header.
The team completed the match without the services of Ruben Semedo, who received a red card in the first minute of stoppage time.
Match Card:
Date & Time: Monday 27 Nov 2023 – 7 pm
Venue: Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium
Ocassion: AFC Champions League
Teams: Al Duhail – Al Istiklol
First Half Result: 0 – 0
Match Result: 2 – 0 (Al Duhail)
Goals: Michael Olunga (47th and 9th0 minutes)
Yellow Cards: Asim Madibo, Shehab Al Laithie
Red Cards: Ruben Semedo
Starting 11: Shehab Al Laithie, Kim Moon Huan, Ruben Semedo, Youssef Ayman, Sultan Al Brake (Mohamed Moussa), Asim Madibo, Ibrahim Kader, Isaaq Al Hajj (Ismail Mohamed), Al Moez Ali (Fares Said), Michael Olunga.
Substitutes: Mohamed Said, Salah Zakaria, Mohamed Moussa, Mohamed Al Naimi, Abdulaziz Hassan, Abdulrahman Fahmy, Ismail Mohamed, Fares Said, Lotfi Majer.
