PA Sport

BEIRUT: Bahrain's Al Muharraq battled back from a goal down to earn a 2-1 victory - and with it two precious away goals - over Lebanon's Al Nejmeh in their AFC Cup semi-final first leg clash in Beirut on Tuesday evening.

Ali Nassereddine gave last year's beaten finalists the lead after 20 minutes in front of their own fans but second-half strikes from Babatunde Fatai and John Jaycee mean Al Muharraq have an advantage going into the second leg on October 17.

At stake is a place in the final against one of two Jordanian clubs, defending champions Al Faisaly or their cross-Amman rivals Al Wihdat.

Jaycee scored the winning goal 20 minutes from time despite claims by Muharraq's coach Carlos Elinho that the Nigerian would not even make the trip to Lebanon due to a club-administered suspension.

The striker started the game, however, although the move by Elinho did not have an immediate impact as Mahmoud Quandouz's Al Nejmeh team took the lead inside the first quarter of the game.

Nassereddine stormed into the left side of the penalty area before getting the better of Anwar Yusuf to open the scoring for Al Nejmeh at the Sports City Stadium.

Al Nejmeh continued to exert pressure on their Bahraini opponents in the second period and they came close on two occasions to doubling the lead.

Ali Wasef's 30-yard free kick in the 52nd minute was saved by Muharraq goalkeeper Ali Hassan while Akram Moghrabi's header went over the bar three minutes later.

That was the signal for Muharraq to raise their game and, just seconds after Moghrabi's attempt, Brazilian striker Leandson Dias could have equalised when he beat defender Hussein Daher on the left, but his curled shot went wide.

However the equaliser finally came three minutes later when Muharraq midfielder Fatai Babatunde silenced the home fans with a powerful shot from the edge of the area.

By the 70th minute Muharraq had taken the lead when Jaycee fired his effort into the top right corner of the Al Nejmeh goal.

There was no way back for Al Nejmeh and, to add to their woes ahead of the second leg, midfielder Yehia Hachem was sent off after elbowing Abdulla Omr in the final seconds of the game.

Muharraq coach Carlos Elinho was delighted that his attempts to mislead opponents Al Nejmeh worked well enough to give his team a 2-1 advantage ahead of the second leg

Elinho claimed in the days leading up to the game that Nigerian John Jaycee had been suspended by the club and would play no part in the game, but the striker was named in the starting line-up and scored the winning goal as Muharraq moved closer to a berth in this year's final.

“It was a good match and the two teams had the same level in the game. It was a good victory for us and it will be a good advantage for us in the second leg,” said Elinho.

“I said before the game that John Jaycee will not come with the team to Beirut but he was in the game today and scored. I think that sometimes you need to have a plan in order to get an advantage.”

“The next match will be a tough one because Al Nejmeh are a good team and we must prepare very well for the match. It's going to be a tough encounter despite the fact that we have won tonight.

“Despite this victory, we don't have any advantage and the chances are 50-50 for both sides. We'll go for a win.”

Al Nejmeh coach Mahmoud Qandouz said his team’s preparations were not upto the mark.

“We played well in the first half and we had a 1-0 advantage by the end of it. We could have added another goal but we missed several scoring chances,” said Qandouz.

“We didn't prepare very well for the match especially on the physical level.”

“As for the next match everything is possible in football. We have enough time to prepare. To be honest, we missed the foreign players and we haven't prepared very well for the match.”