Ittihad start Asian knockout stage with goalless stalemate

Al-Ittihad were held to a frustrating 0-0 draw by Navbahor in the first leg of their second-round clash in the Asian Champions League on Thursday.

While the Saudi Arabian visitors will leave Uzbekistan disappointed by their failure to break the deadlock in the face of a dogged performance from the Central Asian hosts, there is all to play for in next week’s second half when there is a place in the quarter-finals at stake.

In front of a sell-out 22,000 crowd at the Markaziy Stadium in the eastern city of Namangan, the visitors dominated possession before the break with Navbahor happy to sit back and try to hit on the counter.

Abderrazak Hamadallah came the closest in the first half after just five minutes on the clock. Fawaz Al-Yami pulled the ball back from the right and there was the Moroccan turning near the penalty spot to direct a shot that came back off the post with the goalkeeper nowhere.

It didn’t signal the start of an onslaught in what turned out to be a difficult 45 minutes for the Saudi Arabian side.

It was more of the same after the break though the hosts showed a little more attacking ambition and actually started to threaten the Al-Ittihad goal. Just before the hour, Jamshid Iskanderov had a shot blocked from a good position inside the area.

On the hour, Ittihad’s central defender Ahmed Hegazi headed a corner just a little high and wide as the two-time champions attempted to break the deadlock.

With 15 minutes remaining, Abdullah Al-Mayouf had a rare save to make from a bouncing shot from outside the area but soon after Hamdallah came close again.

Substitute Ahmed Al Ghamdi rolled the ball across the edge of the six yard box from the left and it looked like the Moroccan marksman couldn’t miss but, somehow, the ball ended up over the bar, though Hamdallah claimed that a defender had made a crucial intervention to clear the danger.

That was to be as close as anyone came to getting on the scoresheet and Ittihad will look back on a game that they controlled, but one in which they couldn’t make their superiority count.

The second leg takes place in Jeddah next Thursday.