Al Ain go past Al Hilal to enter Asian Champions League final after Riyadh drama

Kuumar Shyam (Abu Dhabi)

Al Ain managed to sweat it past Al Hilal in the rivals’ den of Riyadh to reach the finals of the Asian Champions League (ACL) on Tuesday night. Al Ain had a couple of goals disallowed in a bitterly-fought encounter and lost 2-1 on the night in the second leg but a 4-2 win in the first leg in Al Ain was enough for the inaugural champions of the tournament to go through.

A Ruben Neves’ penalty was negated quickly by Al Ain’s Brazilian defender Erik, but an opportunistic strike from Salem Al Dawsari early in the second half put the Saudi club in front for most of the match. There were two goals disallowed for Al Ain and one for Al Hilal, while the profligate hosts also met with few attempts hitting the goal upright. 

The fact that Al Hilal dominated the possession with 64% compared to Al Ain’s 36%, won 2-1 and lost spoke volumes of the tense affair it was. Al Hilal captain was reduced to tears even long after the match while addressing the post-match interaction.

The inaugural ACL winners pulled out all stops by flying three planeloads of fans to Riyadh to get vocal support behind their team, knowing Al Hilal will come out full blast at them. Al Ain were responsible for breaking a world record run of 34 matches by Al Hilal, the Saudi Pro League leaders and winners of the Saudi Cup in Abu Dhabi earlier this month. The formidable rivals were hurting and ended up avenging the defeat, but just not enough in the final say.  

If there was any apprehension that Al Ain would try to park the bus, that notion was thrown right away from the start when Al Ain conceded a fourth-minute penalty and Hilal cut down the lead of two goals. Kouame Kouadio landed a second late on the legs of Al Hilal's Michael, the referee pointed to the spot which Neves converted.

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Eight minutes later, defender Erik came in with the ball and passed to Sofiane Rahimi, the hat-trick hero of the first leg.  The Hilal defence focused to the right to counter the dangerman but Rahimi passed it to the other end and the ball came back to Erik who slotted in his volley in the right corner.

The hectic pace in the opening set the tempo for the entire half while manager Hernan Crespo and his men showed no intention of killing off the pace against their hustling rivals.

When Saud Abdulhamid stomped on Erik's foot, the foul went unnoticed and Erik had to be replaced in the 18th minute. With players falling and diving, Hilal players got restless the more Al Ain tried to cut off the pace. It led to more fouls from the hosts.

At half time, Al Ain had only 40% of the ball, but seven shots on the goal compared to their rivals' four. Both sides were almost matched for fouls throughout the game.

There were jittery players on both sides. For Al Ain, defender Ahmed Barman, who was the only change from the team in the first leg, inexplicably headed the ball in the direction of his own goal in going up for a successful aerial challenge to a long ball floated in by Hilal. The ball beat his goalkeeper teammate Khaled Eisa but went wide, thankfully. He had to be taken off few minutes later.

With the clock counting down, the experienced Eisa was the one who started cutting down on his speed every time the ball went out of play. The referee, a bit harshly, gave him the yellow card for that, but he took the hit for the team.

The result means Al Ain will return to the final for the first time since 2016, when they lost out over two legs to South Korea's Jeonbuk Motors. Al Hilal player Neymar Jr was in the stands watching.

Ulsan and Yokohama face off in the second leg of their semi-final in Japan on Wednesday, with the South Koreans holding a slender 1-0 lead. The first leg of the final will be played in either Japan or South Korea on May 11 with Al Ain hosting the return two weeks later.