Qatar’s club Al-Sadd, playing without Cristiano Ronaldo, has made it to the playoffs of the AFC Champions League elite football tournament by defeating Saudi Arabia’s club Al-Nassr 2-1. In fact, Al-Nassr had already secured their place in the playoffs, so they rested Ronaldo, who had scored five goals in the last three matches, in this match. This legendary footballer watched this match sitting outside.
Al-Sadd took the lead 8 minutes after the interval with the help of Akram Afif’s goal. When only 10 minutes were left in the scheduled game, Romain Sais scored a suicide goal to level the score at 1-1. However, Qatar’s team got a penalty in injury time which was converted into a goal by Algeria’s Adam Onas.
After this victory, Al-Sadd coach Felix Sanchez said that it was a difficult and close game. We worked hard to stop Al-Nassr from scoring and get the win in their home stadium. The players showed their good performance.
Al Ahli Club was in first place after Iran’s Esteghlal drew 2–1 with Saudi Arabia. Ivan Toney scored both goals for the hosts in Jeddah. Rafael Silva opened the scoring for the Tehran team after 42 minutes, but Toni equalized the score at 1–1 just before the break from the spot.
Mohamed Hossein Elsamy struck again after the restart and restored Esteghlal’s lead after six minutes, but Toney finally scored his second penalty four minutes later, the fourth goal in Asia for the England striker in the space of a week. Iran’s Persepolis beat Iraq’s Al-Shorta 2-1, while UAE’s Al-Wasl drew 1-1 with Qatar’s Al-Rayyan.
