A mountain to climb for Ettifaq
Kuwait City: Al Ettifaq coach Maciej Skorza was despondent after his team’s 4-1 defeat by Kuwait Sporting Club on Tuesday, which leaves the Saudi club with a mountain to climb for the second leg of their semi-final in Dammam in three weeks’ time.
Tunisian striker Issam Jemaa struck twice in the first 11 minutes at the Kuwait SC Stadium as the home side seized the initiative against a club that had hammered them 5-1 at the same ground in their opening Group Stage game in March.
Yousef Al Salem pulled a goal back for the visitors midway through the first half but Chadi Hammami extended Kuwait SC’s lead from the penalty spot in the 58th minute, shortly before Walied Ali was sent off for his second booking.
But despite playing with 10 men for the final half-hour, Kuwait SC got a fourth goal in stoppage time thanks to a fine solo effort by Naseer Al Qahtani.
“It was a hard defeat as we conceded four goals and this means that we have a lot of things to fix before the second leg,” said Skorza.
“It was a disappointing defeat and a result that I never expected at all.”
While the task facing Al Ettifaq in Dammam is immense, the Polish coach still feels that his side are in the tie and can qualify for the final.
“We still haven’t lost hope as we have a game to play at home and things could change if we went into this game with big determination to make a good comeback and qualify for the final,” he said.
“We made a lot of mistakes tonight as we gave our opponents the chance to score easy goals. We must fix those mistakes if we want to keep our chances in the competition alive.”