Al Ahli’s Salem Khamis and Ali Abbas scored from the spot in the first-half and Milad Meydavoudi added a third to give the home side a three-goal lead after 66 minutes at the Al Rashid Stadium.

But Fereydoon Fazli hit back two minutes later with a close range header and Shahin Shafiel, Mohammed Nouri, Mohsen Yousefi and Mohammed Hamrang also found the net as the visitors scored five goals in the final 22 minutes to record their first win in the competition.

“There was no pressure in this game and we were able to keep our focus until the end,” said Karimi, whose side missed out on the last 16 after finishing third in their group.

“We conceded a couple of needless penalties and that gave Al Ahli confidence, and they scored again in the second half to pile the pressure on us.

“My players showed a lot of character on the night. It is very difficult for any team to bounce back from 3-0 down.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t do well in the ACL this year because our games clashed with the Iranian league and we had less time to prepare.”

Al Ahli coach Ivan Hasek felt that his team lacked motivation as they capitulated in dramatic fashion to finish last in Group A with only one point from six games.

“There is no motivation when you play for third place but to lose after leading 3-0 until the last quarter was a very disappointing result,” said the Czech, whose side face a crucial league clash against Al Shabab this weekend.

“We need to learn from these games. We still lack a professional approach.

“On the other hand, we have an important match coming up on Sunday, to decide the UAE Pro League champions. I think most of the players were focused on that game and it’s quite natural because that game is like a final.

“We didn’t field the best team, keeping in mind we have a big game coming up, and I was quite pleased with some of the players who got an opportunity to play at this level. So there were some positives from this game.”