Doha: El Jaish put one foot in the quarter-finals of the 2016 AFC Champions League on Tuesday after an emphatic 4-0 win over Qatar Stars League rivals Lekhwiya left Djamal Belmadi’s side with a mountain to climb in next week’s second leg of the Round of 16.
Romarinho and Hamedallah Abdurazzaq scored in the first half before a third from Mohamed Methnani nine minutes into the second half added further gloss to an impressive performance by Sabri Lamouchi’s team.
Romarinho claimed a fourth four minutes from time to put the result beyond any doubt as El Jaish avenged their loss to Lekhwiya in the semi-finals of the Emir’s Cup last week.
The two clubs will meet again next Wednesday with Lekhwiya needing to score at least four goals to harbour any hope of reaching the quarter-finals for the second time in the club’s history.
“We showed our real ability in the match tonight and the big win will put us closer to the quarter-finals,” said Lamouchi. “Taking advantage of the chances we created was our strength tonight and we scored four important goals.
“We played with a lot of determination to continue our campaign in the AFC Champions League but despite the big victory, there is still another match to play. We will not underestimate our opponents who will be giving their best to recover from the defeat.”
El Jaish, who reached the knockout stage as winners of Group D, started the more aggressively of the two teams and Ahmad Moein had the first sight of goal in the ninth minute, thumping his low shot from outside area, only for it to miss Amine Lacomte’s right post by centimetres. Six minutes later at the other end, Alain Dioko Kaluyituka saw his attempt from similar distance deflected wide of the Lekhwiya goal.
By the 17th minute, however, El Jaish had taken the lead. The Lekhwiya defence failed to clear their lines and the ball eventually fell at the feet of Romarinho, whose initial shot rebounded back off the post, only to fall at the Brazilian’s feet once again and this time he made no mistake.
El Jaish continued to look the more dangerous of the two teams as the clock ticked towards halftime, with Methnani trying his luck from distance, and with only a minute left in the half, Abderazzaq doubled his side’s lead with a fine individual goal.
Picking the ball up inside his own half after being gifted possession by Lekhwiya, the Moroccan powered forwards, holding off Ahmed Yasser as he raced into the penalty area before slotting the ball between Lacomte’s legs and into the goal.
Nine minutes after the restart, El Jaish increased their advantage further when Methnani headed home from the edge of the six-yard box following Moein’s corner from the left.
And while Kaluyituka had the chance to reduce the deficit with 20 minutes to go, only to shoot just wide of the top corner of Khalifa Ababacar’s goal, Romarinho completed the rout four minutes from time when he scored from close range as El Jaish hit on the counterattack.
“We paid for the defensive mistakes we made tonight and that is why the defeat was so big,” said Belmadi. “We didn’t focus well and this was due to the effort we put in over recent matches having a negative effect on us.
“We tried to play with good balance but our strategy didn’t work. We should forget the performance we had tonight and we will not give up. We still have a match in the second leg and we will try our best to get a good result.”
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