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Shabab Al-Ahli Dubai head coach Mahdi Ali has hailed his players after the UAE club’s 3-1 win over AGMK in Group A of the 2021 AFC Champions League kept their slim hopes of progress to the knockout stages alive.

Three first-half goals secured Shabab Al-Ahli first win of the campaign in Matchday Four, leaving them third in the table with matches against Istiklol of Tajikistan and ��������’s Al-Hilal SFC still to come.

Istiklol, who stunned 2019 winners Al-Hilal 4-1, lead the group on seven points with the Riyadh team in second. The Uzbek AGMK are on four points.

“It was a tough match and we thankfully secured a win,” said Ali to the AFC official website. “I want to thank the efforts of the players and I’m very happy with the result.

“I didn’t tell my players anything special (before the match), but I did tell them that it was an important one, and that we had to stay much more focused,” the former coach of the UAE national team added. “I said that we had to apply heavy pressure on them in the first 15 minutes.”

The Emirati team had to withstand long periods of pressure during a challenging second half, and Ali was delighted with his team’s ability to adjust to the changing pace of the match.

“I believe it was natural in the second half to use five defenders because they had good attackers on the wings,” he said. “They changed their style of play, and we changed from attacking to defending. We had to adapt to the match.”

Meanwhile, AGMK head coach Mirdjalal Kasimov blamed the defeat on defensive mistakes, saying players will have to be more focused in their two remaining matches.

“We gave a lot of chances to the opponents and in the opening minutes of the match they scored two goals,” Kasimov said.

“I wouldn’t say that we conceded the two goals because of fatigue. We made mistakes,” he added. “This match is now history. We have to better prepare our players’ mentality for the upcoming matches.”

Shabab Al-Ahli play Istiklol on Tuesday, while AGMK take on Al-Hilal.