Alkass Digital
Al Rayyan captain Yacine Brahimi said collective mentality took them past Sharjah in their win 3-1 in Group A of the AFC Champions League™ 2022 on Tuesday.
Al Rayyan’s early advantage, an own goal, was cancelled out by Sharjah forward Caio Lucas but the Qatari club turned on the power with strikes from Steven N’zonzi and Brahimi to seal the three points.
Al Rayyan’s victory at the King Fahd International Stadium was their first AFC Champions League win over a UAE club since their 2017 triumph against Al Wahda FSC.
Brahimi was in the thick of the action for each of the goals scored against Sharjah.
It was the 32-year-old’s pass across the box that fell onto the path of Mohammed Jumaa to force the own goal. His corner led to N’zonzi scoring the second before finding the net himself from the penalty spot.
The Algerian international revealed that the secret behind the success against Sharjah was their mentality.
“We are extremely happy today because we played a very difficult game against a good team,” said Brahimi, who was named player of the match for the second consecutive game.
“I think we did the job even before the game began. In our minds we told ourselves that this match would be like a final. We came into the match with confidence knowing that we could win.
“The team is in high spirits after this victory and we must continue to work hard and recovery is the most important. We will give everything we have to reach the knockout stage."
The win puts Al Rayyan on seven points, five behind leaders Al Hilal, who confirmed their place in the knockout stage after defeating Tajikistan’s Istiklol 3-0, while Sharjah remained third with three points.
“We won today but we need to regroup and play again at this level in three days' time. So of course we have to enjoy ourselves a little bit but we must not forget our goal to qualify for the knockout stage.
“We want to go as far as we possibly can in the AFC Champions League. We need to focus on ourselves because it’s a tough competition against very good teams," added Brahimi.
Sharjah head coach Common Olaroiu cut a disappointed figure after his team lost for the second time in the tournament.
“We made too many mistakes against Al Rayyan and we performed badly,” said Olaroiu. “We lacked personality and I’m just surprised that we seemed to be playing with fear which caused us to lose the game."
“Qualifying to the knockout stage seems a distant possibility now. We’re not blaming anybody for this defeat. I take full responsibility and I apologise to all the Sharjah supporters. Al Rayyan players fought for every ball. They have a striker that does that and this has helped them a lot. We will be facing Al Hilal next and our chance of winning that match is small.”
Sharjah play Al Hilal on Saturday, while Al Rayyan will be hoping to secure three points when they meet Istiklol on the same day.