The Peninsula
Al Sadd captain Hasan Al Haydos (pictured) insists his side got the three points they deserved after scoring deep into stoppage time to secure a 1-0 victory over Persepolis in Group D of the 2019 AFC Champions League (ACL) on Tuesday.
The match at Jassim bin Hamad Stadium was a repeat of the 2018 semi-final which the Iranian team edged 2-1 on aggregate, but, after dominating large spells of the game, the Qatari team got their revenge in the dying moments.
Al Haydos floated in a free-kick four minutes into added time that was met by Abdelkarim Hassan at the back post and the 2018 AFC Player of the Year’s header back across goal was knocked in by Baghdad Bounedjah as Al Sadd claimed all three points in dramatic fashion.
“It’s true that the goal was very late but we had been controlling the play throughout the game,” said Al Haydos, who won the 2011 ACL with Al Sadd.
“We created several chances; we just weren’t lucky. But in the end we got the first three important points in our Asian campaign.
“I think it’s important to win at home and, fortunately, we succeeded in doing that.”
The last time the sides had met in Doha, it was Persepolis who grabbed a late win in the first leg of the 2018 semi-finals, before a 1-1 draw in Tehran eliminated Al Sadd.
Jesualdo Ferreira’s side seemed intent on revenge from the off and, although the visitors had chances on the break, it was the hosts who appeared the more likely to break the deadlock.
A combination of missed chances from both sides – as well as some fine goalkeeping from Persepolis’s Alireza Beiranvand – meant the game was still goalless as the clock ticket down.
But Al Sadd pushed and pushed and were finally given their reward when the 2018 AFC Champions League’s top scorer Bounedjah was handed a chance he could not miss.
“There are no issues in our attack,” responded Al Haydos when quizzed on the number of chances his side spurned.
“We just had bad luck and sometimes we didn’t make the right decision or were hasty when we took shots.
“I hope we can correct these [mistakes] in the next match and then keep improving from game to game.”