Al Duhail coach Lamouchi hails Olunga wonder show in AFC Champions League sizzler against Esteghlal

AFC Jeddah Al Duhail SC head coach Sabri Lamouchi praised Kenyan forward Michael Olunga whose hat-trick steered the Qatari side to an exciting 4-3 win agai...

AFCJeddahAl Duhail SC head coach Sabri Lamouchi praised Kenyan forward Michael Olunga whose hat-trick steered the Qatari side to an exciting 4-3 win against Islamic Republic of Iran’s Esteghlal FC in the 2021 AFC Champions League on Wednesday.Man-of-the-match Olunga struck in the 10th, 27th and 85th minutes in an absorbing Group C tie which saw both sides exchanging leads at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium.It was a crucial win for Al Duhail as the win meant they leapfrogged Esteghlal into top spot on seven points, one ahead of the Iranians at the midway stage.An overjoyed Lamouchi paid tribute to Olunga’s masterclass.“I can’t find the words to describe this exciting match and it is not easy to talk about it,” said Lamouchi in the post-match press conference. “I want to thank the players for their excellent performance.”“Olunga deserves, of course, to be the man of the match. He’s a special player and his presence has helped us have a lot of attacking options,” said Lamouchi of the 2020 J1 League’s top scorer who now leads the 2021 AFC Champions League scoring charts with four goals.“Tonight we conceded three goals but we managed to get our heads together and recover mentally. In the second half, we tried our best to maintain the strengths of the players and that’s why we didn’t have a similar performance to the first half.”Esteghlal FC head coach Farhad Majidi said both teams had an excellent match but felt Al Duhail’s good balance tilted the tie in their favour.“The two sides had a very good match today and it was a tactical and physical contest,” said Majidi. “I want to thank the players for the good fighting spirit they have and the performance they showed tonight.”“We were the better team in the first half while Al Duhail had only one chance and they scored from it. We made some individual mistakes in our defence and we should try to fix these mistakes.“Al Duhail played with good balance in defence and attack, and their coach implemented that very well. We were good up front but we made some mistakes which cost us the three points.”The two will square off again on Saturday.