Al Duhail coach Hernan Crespo with Edmilson Junior.
Doha: Al Duhail coach Hernan Crespo said individual errors cost them the AFC Champions League match against Saudi side Al Taawoun on Thursday, but noted that the Qatari team did not deserve to lose.
Al Duhail went down fighting 1-2 in their opening Group D match at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Al Qassim.
Crespo was handling the coaching task for the first time with Al Duhail following the departure of Portuguese Luis Castro.
The Qatar football giants took the lead in the seventh minute through Edmilson Junior before the home team responded through Leander Tawamba (11) and Alvaro Medran (86) to snatch the win away from the Red Knights.
“We played a good match against Taawoun who relied on counter-attacks and closing spaces, but despite this we were better than them on many occasions during the match and we managed to score early. However, we did not maintain our progress and we wasted a number of attacks that could have changed the result of the match in our favour,” Crespo said after the match.
“Also, in the second half, we had many opportunities, but the Al Taawoun defence prevented us from reaching the net. We paid the price for these opportunities in the last minutes with a counter-attack, from which Al Taawoun scored the second goal, and we did not succeed in returning to the match again,” he added.
However, Crespo said the team will learn from the mistakes and will be ready for their next encounter.
Tomorrow, Al Duhail will take on Iran’s Sepahan FC, who opened their campaign with a 3-1 win against Pakhtakor.
“We will address all the mistakes that happened in today’s match and we will prepare for our next match which we will play to win and preserve our chances of qualifying for this group. However, I must say that we did not deserve to lose, but we will compensate in the upcoming matches,” the Argentine added.
