Medhi Benatia stars as Al Duhail blank Esteghlal
Doha, Qatar: Big players choose big occasions to make their marks and so did Medhi Benatia at Al Duhail Stadium on Tuesday.
Al Duhail SC had brought in Benatia from Juventus with AFC Champions League in mind and the Moroccan defender put in an influential performance and scored the opening goal with a towering header to help his side start their continental campaign with a 3-0 victory against Esteghlal FC.
Duhail were far superior to their rivals in terms of ball possession and chances created in their Group C match, but their wayward finishing meant the hard-working Iranians were very much in the game until Youssef El Arabi scored their second in the 73rd. Substitute Ali Afif added a third in added time to make it look a comfortable outing for Duhail, but it was far from that.
Duhail were off the blocks in a flash and it took just 24 seconds for Nakajima Shoya to test Esteghlal keeper Mahdi Rahmati, who had to parry away the Japanese striker’s left-footed shot for a corner.
Duhail coach Rui Faria operated with a five-man defence marshalled by Benatia, with fullbacks Murad Naji and Sultan Al Brake taking up advanced positions to join the attack whenever they can.
While Benatia had a perfect game Shoya, who had a sparkling opening, was less influential but there were encouraging signs of a developing partnership with El Arabi.
Duhail defence did not give Esteghlal’s dangerous striker Godwin Mensha any space to run but they still had to endure a few nervous moments and Vourya Ghafouri’s cross into the box that just needed a touch was among those.
For Duhail, El Arabi was not at his best and a deflected header was slightly wide off the mark while the usually accurate finisher sent his header off the resulting corner into the stands.
Esteghlal got a big chance to take the lead right at the start of the second half but Amine Lecomte did well to smother Bagheri’s low effort.
Duhail then created a string of chances with Benatia and El Arabi missing their headers before the defender got his effort bang on target in the 56th minute off a corner from Murad Naji.
And After enduring a couple of tense moments, Duhail made sure they avoided a nervy end to the match with a second goal.
Nakajima found El Arabi with a through ball but it was a mistake from Esteghlal keeper and captain Rahimat that handed the ball to the striker, who blasted the ball into an empty net.
Afif got a third after linking up with Edmilson, who also worked hard with not much to show for it.
Duhail have plenty of scope for improvement but Faria would be delighted with their flying start.
Al Ain and Al Hilal, who play each other are the other teams in the group.
