Ittihad Jeddah coach Anghel Iordanescu dished out praise for his players after beating Egyptian champions Ahli 1-0 in the Club World Championship (CWC) opening match on Sunday.

"Congratulations to my players," the former Romania boss said.

Iordanescu also admitted his side gave a dismal performance in the first-half, noting that Ittihad players may have feared their opponents more than expected.

"To be fair, we didn't play well in the first 45 minutes. I think we were a bit scared of our opponents and maybe gave them too much respect,” he said.

The Ittihad boss said that if Ahli had found the net in the first-half, it would have literally been a different ball game.

"In the second period we tried to build up our game with possession and we created more problems for our opponents.

“I think we deserved to win in the second half but if they scored in the first half, which they deserved to do, then the score could well have been different,” he added.

Ittihad will have an uphill task against Brazilian giants Sao Paulo in the CWC semi-final on Wednesday.

"We are down five players and we don't have too many options to change if players are tired or injured but hopefully this victory will give us confidence," Iordanescu said.