Federation Cup champions Mahindra United's defence withstood Syrian club Al Wahda's second half onslaught to earn a creditable goalless draw in the AFC Cup football championship match, at the Nehru Stadium in Fatorda, Goa, on Wednesday.
Al Wahda, who had more ball possession, came close to scoring on several occassions but were thwarted by Mahindra custodian Kalyan Chaubey, who made at least three good saves.
The crossbar also came to the rescue of the home team in the second half as Moutassem Alaya's shot crashed into it before defender Covan Lawerence made a goalline save off Whalid Al Sharif in injury time to deny the visitors full points.
Mahindra, who had beaten Dhoffar of Oman in their earlier match, now have four points from two matches.
Al Wahda, who drew against Dhoffar, are with two points from two matches.
Both teams looked at par in the first half and had enough chances to score. Al Wahda, who did more of the probing with Maher Alsayed and Nabil Alshehmeh combined well to trouble the rival defence time and agian.
Al Wahda had the first clear chance in the 18th minute when Maher Alsayed and Mousa Traqouri split the defence with a wall pass before the former shot straight to Choubey from close range.
Mahindra, who relied more on counter attacks, tried to break the rival defence with long overhead passes and had two close chances to surge ahead. But first Felix Aboagye failed to control his shot and ended up firing over, and later Raphael Patron Akapko's shot was blocked by Syrian team's custodian Badderddin Azowar.
Al Wahda, who kept up the pressure, got another chance to score in the dying minutes of the first half but Chaubey again came to his team's rescue and blocked Maher Alsayed's shot.
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