Al Ahli managed to snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat tonight against Al Kharaitiyat. Ahli have their skipper Meshal Abdullah to thank when he scored a last-gasp equalizer in the 93rd minute of the game for a 1-1 draw.

Kharaitiyat will feel robbed of a victory though. They knew that their defence would be under pressure because of quality of strikers in the Ahli line up – including the QSL’s leading striker Alain Dioko.

Dioko has already scored 20 goals and is just two goals shy of his previous season’s record which saw him win the Golden Boot award.

Kharaitiyat coach Amar Osim had said before the match that every team knows that Dioko is the main threat and every team makes plans to thwart him but he still ends up scoring. However, the Bosnian insisted that he would have a plan in place to control the Congolese striker.

Kharaitiyat were keeping a tight defence and attacking on the counter, it seemed to be working for Osim’s boys. They managed to hold off Ahli strikers in the first half with the teams heading into the break goalless. 

In the second half, Kharaitiyat continued with their counter attacking strategy, and they were rewarded in the 75th minute when they opened the scoring through Abdulaziz Rashid Ansari. 

But just when it looked like they would get an unlikely win, the Ahli skipper Meshal Abdulla assisted Fred Dabanka who got the dramatic equaliser. 

During the pre-match press conference, Ahli’s new coach Zlatko Krajncar had said that his team was not just about Dioko and that players like Abdullah had the ability to turn matches on their head. And that’s exactly what happened.  

While they have rescued a point with this draw, Ahli are now in sixth place with 31 points, four adrift of El Jaish in fourth.