The Boss Held by Al Hilal of Saudi at Home in AFC Champions League
The UAE giants Al Ain ended up splitting points with Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal after playing out a goalless draw in the AFC Champions League quarter-finals first leg encounter at the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium.
The squad of the Garden City Club was reduced to 10-men in the 66th minute after Mohanad Salem was given marching orders after he pocketed his second yellow card.
The return leg will be played in Riyadh on September 11, in which the Boss brigade hopes to clinch the qualifying card to the semi-finals.
At Al Ain household, it was an action-packed encounter right from the word go. The visitors threatened Khalid Eissa in the minute 9.
In the 11th minute, Omar Kharbin of Al Hilal managed to put the ball in the back of the goal on a release from Brazilian Carlos Eduardo, only to see the offside flag go up.
Al Ain also saw an effort from Douglas denied in the 25th minute after the Brazilian’s full stretched effort off a free-kick from Omar Abdul Rahman but was caught offside.
In the 60th minute, a left-footed effort from Omar Abdul Rahman was saved by Al Hilal goalkeeper Abdullah Al Muaiouf.
In the 85th minute, Omar Abdul Rahman’s cross was followed with a well-directed header from Douglas only to see it being plucked from the air by Al Muaiouf.
The official website
Minutes before the match word-go, the captains of the two teams launched the official website of the Boss, in an exceptional scene.
Omar Abdul Rahman and Yasser Al Qahtani pressed a button to show the launch of the website at the huge screen of the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium, in front of 21,223 fans.
