The top two sides in Group A settled for a point but Al Ahli will wonder how they didn’t take all three in a 0-0 stalemate with Al Wasl.

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Cosmin Olaroiu’s side had all the best chances but just could not find the crucial score, a point apiece meaning both sides are still in the driving seat to finish inside the top two and make the Arabian Gulf Cup semi-finals.

Olaroiu said he was satisfied with a point, although he claimed the Red Knights showed more desire to win the game.

“We played 75 minutes in a good way, better than our opponent. Al Wasl played with almost their full squad but our eyes were on the three points,” said the Romanian.

Ahli play arguably the biggest game in club history in a week’s time but you would not have known it at Rashid Stadium, Olaroiu selecting big guns Rodrigo Lima, Moussa Sow and Everton Ribeiro in a strong starting line-up.

With the AFC Champions League final’s deciding second-leg against Guangzhou Evergrande approaching next Saturday, you might have expected a tentative approach from the hosts, but Ahli and Brazilian duo Lima and Ribeiro in particular did not look they were saving themselves for their China mission.

It was the Red Knights and not the Cheetahs who began the game at a lightening pace, Lima’s header ruled out by the linesman’s incorrectly raised offside flag. Ribeiro’s shot then deflected over before he tangled the Wasl defence up in knots only to pull his shot wide.

The best chances thereafter fell to the peripheral Moussa Sow. Plucking an Abdulaziz Sanqour ball out of the air in the first half, his control and shot was excellent, his effort thumping the post.

Things after that were not so good. Racing onto a Humaid Abbas pass on the hour he lashed horribly wide and he would have been delighted to see the linesman’s flag after sending a free header hor- ribly off target at the death.

Despite the presence of Lima, Ribeiro and Sow, the hosts were missing Abdulaziz Haikel, Salmin Khamis, Kwon Kyung-won, Majed Hassan, Habib Fardan, Ahmed Khalil and Ismail Al Hamadi, but Wasl head coach Gabriel Calderon did not consider the draw an opportunity missed.

“Al Ahli have two teams and have some of the best players in the Emirates, so this is no excuse that seven players did not play, because this whole team is the first team. It is more excuses,” he said.