Karshi: Nasaf head coach Ruzikul Berdiev felt his side deserved nothing from their encounter with Al Ahli of the United Arab Emirates as the Uzbek side slipped to a 1-0 loss thanks to a goal from Everton Ribeiro.
The Brazilian’s goal 10 minutes from time sealed a first win of the campaign for the UAE champions as Cosmin Olaroiu’s side moved into second place in Group D behind leaders Al Ahli from Saudi Arabia.
“With the way we played tonight, we didn’t deserve to win,” said Berdiev (pictured). “We didn’t show the kind of football I expect from us. Al Ahli played well and battled hard on the pitch.”
Berdiev welcomed Artur Gevorkyan back into his team, but the Turkmenistan international midfielder was unable to have a significant influence on the game but the Nasaf coach is confident his team can continue to push for a place in the Round of 16.
“We have two more games in the group stage and we will keep fighting until the end,” he said.
“We had a plan for this game but we didn’t put that on display. This is a high level tournament, and players make the difference in these kind of games. Gevorkyan returned from injury but he couldn’t show his ability this evening.
“Al Ahli’s substitutions made them stronger and each player was able to help the team, but for us we couldn’t do that. But we still have the chance to qualify for the next stage and we want to continue to play in this competition.”
Ribeiro started the game on the bench before being introduced midway through the second half as a replacement for Eisa Al Marzouqi and, with 10 minutes remaining he netted the only goal to give Al Ahli their first win of the campaign after two draws and defeat.
“It was a very tough game,” said Al Ahli coach Olaroiu. “I said to my players they should play a more attacking game in the second half because we couldn’t score in the first half. They played very well and we scored an important goal.
“We had a good advantage in the second half and we achieved an important victory. We have played a lot of matches in the last few weeks and I decided to keep Ribeiro on the bench at the start. We were playing against a strong team, Nasaf are a good team and we didn’t win easily.”
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