JEDDAH, 20 November 2006 — Al-Ahli of Jeddah found themselves in difficult position after being dragged to a 1-1 draw by RCA Raja C of Morocco in the first leg of their Arab Champions League quarterfinal tie at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal stadium here.
Raja managed to control for the most part of the match, gained total control of the midfield and launched dangerous raids into enemy goal on many occasions.
Ahli drew first blood in minutes 44 from a fine pass between Turki Al-Thagafi and Malek Moaz inside the penalty box. Malek managed to find a big gap inside the penalty box and made a fine shot to the left hand side of the goalie that stood there helplessly watching the ball go through in the back of the net.
The equalizer soon came in the minutes 52 from an own goal by Ahli defender Khaled Badra who headed in the ball by mistake in the back of Ahli net. Sami Tajuldeen gave a nice cross inside Ahli’s penalty box but instead of clearing the ball out, Badra headed the ball in.
Ahli travel to Morocco for the second leg match against the titleholders on Nov. 26.
Meantime, Al-Ittihad play away to ES Setif of Algeria in a first leg match in Algeria and Al-Nasr host MC Alger tomorrow in the first leg match in Riyadh.
