Football players of "Ahal" played the second match in the group stage of the AFC Champions League, which is like in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) with the participation of four clubs from Turkmenistan, Iran, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Recall that in the opening match, the team of the Main Directorate "Turkmennebitonumleri", making its debut in this prestigious club competition in Asia, played a draw - 1: 1 with the finalist of the AFC Champions League-2015, the bronze medalist of the United Arab Emirates "Shabab Al-Ahly" from Dubai.
In the second round, the vice-champion of Turkmenistan at the stadium named after Prince Abdullah Al-Faysal was examined by an equally serious rival - the Qatari club Al-Gharafa with a rich football history dating back to 1979. Then the team was called "Al-Ittihad". Since 2004, he has been playing under the name Al-Gharafa in the country's top football division, the Qatar Stars League.
Previously, this team became the champion of Qatar seven times (1991/92, 1997/98, 2001/02, 2004/05, 2007/08, 2008/09, 2009/10), won the Qatar Emir Cup the same number of times (1994/ 95, 1995/96, 1996/97, 1997/98, 2001/02, 2009, 2012), won the Crown Prince Cup (2000, 2010, 2011) and the Qatar Super Cup (2009, 2017/18, 2018/19) three times ). In 2010, Al-Gharafa reached the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League, where they lost on aggregate to Al-Hilal from Saudi Arabia. At the end of last season, Al-Gharafa finished fourth in the Qatar championship.
The strength of Al-Garafa is also indicated by the fact that a number of legionnaires from Brazil, as well as the teams of Algeria, Iran, Mali and Côte d'Ivoire, play in its composition. And the total value of all the team's players, according to the authoritative website Transfermarkt, is more than 15 million euros.
Since 2021, Italian specialist Andrea Stramaccioni has been working with Al-Gharafa as a head coach, who previously coached Italian Inter and Udinese, Greek Panathinaikos, Czech Sparta and a number of other clubs in Europe and Asia.
“We didn’t have much information about FC Ahal, but in the match with the Arab Shabab Al-Ahly we saw a well-organized Turkmen team, most of whose players play in the national team,” the Italian coach said at a pre-match press conference.
“We played a difficult match against Shabab Al-Ahly. But we must forget it and prepare for each game as if it were a final,” said Ahal defensive midfielder Serdar Geldiyev in turn, stressing that “participation for his team in the AFC Champions League is historical, and for each player it means also a great experience."
Ahal players seized the initiative already at the beginning of the match and already in the 11th minute they could open an account. But the ball after hitting Meilis Diniev flew just above the gate. In the team of Rovshan Mukhadov, Ata Geldiev, Elman Tagaev, Mirza Beknazarov could also score, but the ball stubbornly did not go into the goal.
The vice-champion of Turkmenistan continued to have a territorial advantage in the second half, as evidenced by the statistics of the match. Ahal beat Al-Gharafa in possession (65% to 35%), passes (536-291), passing accuracy (90%-77%), shots on goal (20-11). However, two mistakes in defense nullified all game advantages.
At the 60th minute from the left flank followed by an accurate canopy on the Malian national team player Cheik Diabate, and he opened the scoring with a header. Al-Gharafa's success was consolidated in the 87th minute by Ahmed Alaaeldin, who came on as a substitute in the middle of the second half, sending the ball with his right foot into the lower left corner of the goal.
Having won with a score of 2:0, Al-Gharafa with 4 points took the lead in group "C". "Foolad" (Iran) and "Shabab Al-Ahly" have 2 points each, having played a draw between themselves - 1:1. Ahal has 1 point. Before the end of the two-round tournament, the teams will have to play 4 more matches, so the situation in the standings can change at any time.
In the next round, Ahal will play with Foolad, and Shabab Al-Ahli will play with Al-Gharafa.
The group tournament will end on April 27.
Recall that the winners of 10 groups and 3 best teams among those who took second places in both the Western and Eastern zones will advance to the 1/8 finals.
