Amman:Ali Salah and Mahmoud Shelbaieh scored as Jordan’s Al Wehdat picked up a first win of the AFC Cup with a 2-1 victory over Oman’s Al Arouba at King Abdullah International Stadium on Wednesday.
Salah headed home four minutes before the break to open the scoring shortly after coming on as a substitute before Shelbaieh crucially added a second for the home side just after the hour mark.
Juma Darwish pulled a goal back for Al Arouba with 15 minutes remaining, but the home side held on to bounce back from their 2-1 opening day defeat by Neftchi to move a point behind the Uzbek side, who shared a 2-2 draw with Salgaocar in India, in Group D.
"I'm happy as we got a deserved win. It was a good match from both sides and we managed to take advantage from two chances and scored two goals which were enough to win,” said Al Wehdat coach Branko Smiljanic.
"We should have scored more than two goals, but we lacked the quick pace of our midfielders.
“Our players were tired due to the heavy schedule and hopefully we can get past this problem and improve our performance in the upcoming matches."
Al Wehdat edged an evenly contested first half as Iraqi striker Salah, who had only been on the field for a few seconds after replacing Amer Abuhwaiti, headed home Abdalla Deeb’s corner four minutes before half-time.
And Salah should have doubled Al Wehdat’s lead seven minutes into the second half, but with only Al Arouba goalkeeper Ahmed Al Qulhati to beat, failed to convert Rafat Ali’s cross.
But fortunately for Salah, Shelbaieh struck for the home side midway through the second half as his lob from just outside the area beat Al Qulhati.
Al Arouba pulled a goal back as Darwish’s shot deflected in off the crossbar, but Al Arouba fell short of following up their 1-0 opening day win over Salgaocar.
"We played well and I'm satisfied with our performance as we created a lot of chances and the result could have been different had we scored from the chances that we created,” said Al Arouba coach Mukhtar Mukhtar.
"Al Wehdat are a good team and they have a lot of experience in the AFC Cup, and despite the fact they are having some problems in the local league, they are always strong in the AFC Cup.”
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