The hosts dominated large parts of the opening exchanges, with Komail Al Aswad dictating the play for Al Riffa as they looked to pin Al Nahda back in their own half.
Despite having the vast majority of possession, the first and only real opportunity of the half fell to Al Nahda’s Inters Gui, who turned inside Al Riffa’s box but was unable to keep his strike on target as he couldn’t keep his balance.
The opening half eventually came to nothing for either side, with over 20 fouls committed from both teams combined. Neither team created anything meaningful in front of goal in a tense, nervy encounter.
It took less than 60 seconds after the restart for Al Riffa to have a chance to go ahead. Once again it was captain Al Aswad, but he couldn’t direct his header on target from the corner, and his powerful attempt went over the bar.
Al Nahda were next to almost fire themselves in front. Salaah Al Yahyaei crossed from the byline and found Walter Bwalya inside the box but the Congolese striker also couldn’t direct his header on target.
The game then sprung into life, and Al Riffa thought they were in front when Jaco shot from outside the box, only for Ibrahim Al Mukhaini to get his fingertips to the Brazilian’s strike, pushing the ball onto the post.
However, the hosts opened the scoring with a header of their own. Ali Haram timed his run to perfection, and found space between Al Nahda’s centre-backs. His towering header from a cross out wide nestled into the back of the net which Al Mukhaini could do nothing to stop it.
But the visitors weren’t done just yet as a header of their own levelled the match.
Abdulaziz Khalfan delivered a beautiful ball from the right hand side, where Gui’s powerful header cannoned off the crossbar, but the Ivorian was able to get on the end of the rebound and nod home from close range.
Al Riffa should have won it late on when Al Aswad created space for himself on his favoured left foot on the edge of the box, but dragged his effort just wide of Al Mukhaini’s goal.
The reverse leg between these two sides will take place on Monday in Muscat, Oman.
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