Al Wasl 2-good in GCC final

Diego Maradona insists Al Wasl’s work in the two-legged GCC Champions League final is only half done after they established a commanding, initial advantage in Bahrain. The Cheetahs came away from Manama’s Khalifa Stadium in the Gulf kingdom on Tuesday evening with a 3-1 lead over Al Muharraq thanks to second-half strikes from Essa Ali, Rashid Essa and Juan Olivera. Those precious away goals cancelled out Hussain Ali’s opener for the hosts on the night and now afford Wasl the comparative luxury of being able to lose Sunday’s return encounter 2-0 and they’d still prevail overall. However, anxious to guard against complacency, Maradona believes Muharraq will regroup and rally at Zabeel Stadium in a belated bid to snatch away the silverware from Wasl’s grasp. “It’s not over yet,” the legendary Argentinian tentatively warned in his post-match press conference in midweek. “There’s still the second leg and I hope we can get as good a score in the next match. “Muharraq are a strong team, with a very good player in Hussain Ali – he can play anywhere in the world. “We cannot expect them not to fight back and must enter with a similar attacking mindset, not sit back and defend the lead because they will come back at us. “They will come to win, so we should think offensively and not let them take a higher score. We’ll play to win the next match because this is a very dangerous team.” Muharraq counterpart Eisa Sadoon was at a loss to explain his side’s performance in a match where a fair number of his players underperformed considerably. “It was a very difficult game,” he explained. “Our preparation was good, but we don’t know what happened. Some players did very badly, but positives came in the form of our left back, Waleed Hayam, and the keeper, Abdullah Al Kabi, was also strong. “I cannot say anything about the referee. We can only congratulate Al Wasl and, in the second game, we will just have to push harder for the win.”