The Iraqi Al-Zawraa team suffered its first loss of the season after losing to Saudi Al-Nassr by two goals to nil, in the match that brought the two teams together on Wednesday evening at Al-Zawraa Stadium in the capital Baghdad, during the second round of the group stage of the AFC Champions League 2, with an audience exceeding 13,000 spectators.

Despite the clear technical differences between the two sides, the 'Nawaris' could have secured a better result were it not for three prominent negatives that overshadowed the course of the match:

Al-Zawraa entered the match with an acceptable balance in the early minutes, but they were unable to play comfortably, as fear dominated the players' performance who did not capitalize on their individual and collective abilities. This hesitation gave the Saudi team space in defense and deprived the whites of creating any real offensive threat.

Al-Nassr played the match without their star player Cristiano Ronaldo and was not at their best, yet Al-Zawraa failed to take advantage of the situation, as they played with excessive defensive caution. It is true that the Iraqi team had possession of the ball at times, but their offensive attempts were timid and did not trouble the Brazilian goalkeeper Luis Pinto.

Coach Abdul Ghani Shahid was slow to intervene tactically. Despite needing to activate the offensive side at the start of the second half, he did not introduce his impactful players until later, as Jordanian striker Razaq Bani Hani came on in the 52nd minute, while Hassan Abdul Karim entered in the 67th minute and Mohammed Qassem in the 80th minute, which were substitutions that did not make the required difference.

With this victory, Al-Nassr raised their points to 6 at the top of Group D, while Al-Zawraa's points remained at 3 in second place on goal difference from Istiklol Dushanbe.