ACL MD1 - Group A: Lokomotiv 1-1 Al Ittihad

After a largely uneventful first half at Lokomotiv Stadium, it was Al Ittihad who took the lead when Venezuelan frontman Gelmin Rivas stabbed home from close in 11 minutes before the interval.

The home side pushed forward after the restart but had to wait until a minute from time for Mirzaev to drill home the equaliser before Lokomotiv’s Jasur Khasanov and Al Ittihad’s Fahad Al Muwallad received their marching orders for a confrontation in the aftermath.

“We wanted to win but we made a mistake in defence and they scored a goal. But we showed great unity in our team and were not inferior to them in any aspect of the match. So I am happy with the draw also,” said Lokomotiv coach Andrey Miklyaev.

“We will begin preparations for the next game tomorrow and, although there are no easy games in the ACL, we will try to win our next matches.”

In a quiet opening 30 minutes Lokomotiv had the first real sight on goal midway through the first half when Mirzaev laid the ball off to midfielder Kakhi Makharadze only for him to blast over from distance.

But Al Ittihad then went in front in the 34th minute after some neat interchange play between Al Muwallad and Rivas just outside the left side of the Lokomotiv penalty area before the Venezuelan expertly turned Nemanja Janicic and prodded past goalkeeper Ignatiy Nesterov.

And Al Ittihad had another chance just before the hour when Sulley Muntari found Abdulfattah Asiri, who cut inside from the left and fired a low shot that was gathered by Nesterov.

The Uzbeks then had the ball in the net at the midway stage of the second half when Makharadze headed in Server Djeparov’s corner only for the goal to be ruled out because of an earlier infringement by substitute Marat Bikmaev on the edge of the six yard box.

Shortly after Al Muwallad forced Nesterov into a flying save with his accurate effort from 30 yards and from the ensuing corner substitute Abdulrahman Al Ghamdi shot high and wide with his first touch of the game from 12 yards.

But in the dying minutes Khasanov curled in a deep free-kick that was well kept in play at the back post by Sherzod Fayziev and when the ball eventually dropped to Mirzaev he made no mistake with his finish before Khasanov and Al Muwallad saw red just seconds later.

“After scoring the first goal we tried to hold onto the lead but because we already believed we had done enough for the win we conceded a last-minute goal,” said Al Ittihad coach Victor Piturca.

“Lokomotiv gave us a very tough game so I am pleased with getting a point away from home.”