Lekhwiya held to a goalless draw in Saudi

Lekhwiya dropped two points behind leaders Pakhtakor in Group B of the AFC Champions after the Qatari champions played out a dull goalless draw with Saudi Arabia’s Al Ettifaq at the Prince Mohammed bin Fahad Stadium on Tuesday. The visitors showed a bit more attacking verve that their hosts but neither side really offered much of a scoring threat in a disappointing match that was generally bogged down in midfield. Having lost all of their games on the road in last year’s AFC Champions League, Lekhwiya finally picked up their first away point in the competition. It put them in second place in the group with four points, two behind Pakhtakor, who secured their second straight win thanks to a late strike by Jamshid Iskanderov in a 1-0 win over Al Shabab Al Arabi earlier on Tuesday Ettifaq are third in the group with a single point, one ahead of Al Shabab Al Arabi, who have lost both of their games so far. The first half was a generally uneventful affair with the only real effort of note coming near the half-hour mark when Tunisian midfielder Youssef Msakni gathered the ball in the centre circle and ran straight at the heart of the Ettifaq defence. He left three Ettifaq defenders in his wake as he accelerated towards goal but with only the goalkeeper to beat, he contrived to scuff his shot wide with the target at his mercy. The second half was quite similar to the first with both teams devoid of attacking ideas in the final third Issair Dia worked an opening for himself on the left edge of the Al Ettifaq box in the 61st minute but the Senegalese winger put his shot just wide of the post. The visitors had one final chance to win the match deep into stoppage time when they were awarded a free-kick on the edge of the Ettifaq box after Sebastian Soria had been fouled by Ahmed Mubarak. But Hussein Ali’s effort summed up the match as he harmlessly drove the ball into the base of the wall to keep the game scoreless. Lekhwiya coach Eric Gerets felt that the draw was a fair result. “The draw is acceptable for both sides,” said the Belgian. “We didn’t give many chances away to Ettifaq and we controlled the game for nearly 80 minutes. “The only thing that we missed tonight is the big chance in the first half while for the rest of the game we performed well.” Al Ettifaq coach Maciej Skorza was disappointed with the result that left his team with much work to do if they hope to make it to the knockout stage. “The players had a good fighting performance and we tried our best to get three points but we were not lucky,” said the Pole. “We tried our best not to open the play against the Lekhwiya players while at the same time we relied on the quick pace of our players. I hope that we can get a better result in our next match as the draw tonight at home is not good for our chances.”   Qatar Sports News