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Riyadh (AFP) – The Saudi Al Hilal, the defending champion, decided his position with the Qatari Al Rayyan, by defeating him 3-0 on Monday in the second round of the first group of the AFC Champions League in football, achieving his second victory in a row.
At Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium in Riyadh, Abdullah Al-Hamdan (27), Muhammad Kanoo (48) and substitute Nasser Al-Dosari (87) took turns scoring the goals of the match.
Al Hilal raised its score to 6 points once morest Al Rayyan II (3), following the Saudi team won the opening once morest Sharjah, the UAE and Qatar, over Tajikistan’s Independence, and the other two sides will meet later.
Al Hilal, crowned with the championship four times (a record), started the match in a distinctive way, and threatened in the second minute with the header of the Brazilian Michel Delgado, who crossed the crossbar following a perfect cross from Muhammad Al-Buraik.
And quickly, the play was confined to the middle of the field without a real danger from the two teams, despite the clear preference of Al Hilal, who returned to the threat through a powerful shot from inside the penalty area to Abdullah Al-Hamdan, the danger of which ended when it collided with the Al Rayyan defender (22), before the goalkeeper blocked Moussa Mariga’s header following two minutes.
Abdullah Al-Hamdan translated the superiority of the Argentine coach Ramon Dias’ team by scoring the first goal following an attack he started himself through a pass by Muhammad Al-Buraik, who returned it to him on a golden plate to put it brilliantly into the net.
Delgado almost doubled the score in stoppage time in the first half, following fully confronting Al Rayyan nets, but his shot crossed the crossbar.
In the same way, Al Hilal started the second half in search of another goal, and it had what it wanted following Abdullah Al Hamdan’s pass to Muhammad Kanoo, who put the ball into the net with a wonderful shot (48).
Al-Hilal continued to dominate amid the loss of Al-Rayyan, who threatened for the first time in the 62nd minute through a dangerous counter-attack that stopped at the solidity of Al-Hilal’s defense, before repeating the same scenario ten minutes later through a ball that passed next to the post following Osama Al-Tiri’s shot.
From a high individual skill presented by Delgado, Al Hilal almost added the third goal, but the goalkeeper saved the situation by stopping the attempt (76).
The substitute Nasser Al-Dosari scored the third when he hit the ball from inside the penalty area and hit Al Rayyan defender and slid into the net (87), before Qatari attempts to reduce the difference, especially through Hisham Ali’s shot that bounced from the post in stoppage time.
Historic Indian victory
In the second group, the Iraqi Air Force fell to Mumbai City 1-2 to make the latter a historic achievement and become the first Indian team to achieve a victory in the AFC Champions League.
Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya advanced through substitute Hammadi Ahmed (59), before Mumbai turned the table with the goals of the Brazilian Diego Mauricio (70 from a penalty kick) and Rahul Beheki (75) at King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh.
Mumbai City won the three points, equal to each of the Air Force, the opening winner on the UAE island, and the Saudi youth, with the latter two meeting later.
In the fifth group, the Jordanian Wihdat fell to Nasaf of Uzbekistan 0-2 with a double by Serbian Marko Stanjevic in the 71st and 85th minutes at Prince Muhammad Bin Fahd Stadium in Dammam.
Nasaf led with 4 points following its opening tie with Al-Sadd 1-1, while Al-Wehdat’s balance froze at a point following a similar result in the first match once morest Al-Faisaly, provided that the Qatari and Saudi teams meet later.
© 2022 AFP
