JEDDAH, 14 October 2005 — Defending champions Al-Ittihad of Saudi Arabia and 2003 winners Al-Ain of the United Arab Emirates will clash in the final of this season’s AFC Champions League.

Two goals from Sierra Leone striker Mohamad Kallon gave Al-Ittihad a 2-0 win over South Korea’s Busan I’Park in Jeddah as the Saudi club reached the final for the second successive season.

Al-Ittihad, who won the first leg of the semifinal 5-0 in South Korea two weeks ago, will now face Al-Ain of the United Arab Emirates in the two-legged final.

Al-Ain, the winners of the inaugural title in 2003, drew 0-0 with Shenzhen Jianlibao of China for a 6-0 aggregate win.

Kallon opened the scoring in the 18th minute when he headed home Ahmed Dohki’s cross and the 26-year-old added his second on 58 minutes, tapping home Ibrahim Suwaid’s pass.

The Chinese side needed to find the target quickly if they were to claw back the deficit but they almost fell behind after just four minutes when Panamanian striker Luis Tejada just missed for Milan Macala’s side.

Huang Yunfeng had the best chance for Shenzhen on the half-hour mark but he scooped a close range effort wide of the mark before Li Yi also squandered a good chance.

Nigerian striker Nwoah Onyekachi, scorer of a hat trick in the first leg, could have won the game for Al-Ain in the 80th minute but his shot was well stopped. “It was not easy for our under-strength team to play against a strong side like Al Ain,” said Shenzhen coach Guo Ruilong. “We tried our best and reaching the last four proved we didn’t come just to make up the numbers.”

The first leg will be held in Al-Ain on Wednesday, Oct. 26 with the return match in Jeddah on Monday, Oct. 31.

France, Slovakia, Switzerland and

Spain Book Tickets for Germany

In London, former champions France, Sweden and Serbia & Montenegro sealed their places in next year’s World Cup finals on a tense night of European qualifying on Wednesday.

There was also cause for celebration in Norway, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland, the six teams who will be in next month’s European playoffs.

But there was little to cheer in Athens as Greece’s hollow 1-0 win over Georgia could not prevent the European champions being eliminated in Group Two.

Denmark were also eliminated in Group Two, Turkey winning 1-0 in Albania to take second place behind Ukraine and to reach the playoffs.

Bahrain took a step nearer their first World Cup finals with a win over Uzbekistan on away goals in the Asian playoff.

A 0-0 draw in Manama put Bahrain through after Saturday’s replayed first leg ended 1-1 in Tashkent.

Uzbekistan originally won the first leg 1-0 but world soccer’s governing body FIFA declared the result void after a refereeing error.

Bahrain now face Trinidad & Tobago in a two-legged playoff with a place in Germany the prize for the winners.

Trinidad stunned Mexico 2-1 to render Guatemala’s game against Costa Rica meaningless.

The South American playoff went to Uruguay, who edged Argentina 1-0 to take fifth spot in the 10-team group ahead of Chile and Colombia.

Uruguay will meet Australia over two legs next month in the final inter-continental playoff.

Twenty-seven of the 32 qualifiers are now known with 10 teams heading into the five two-legged playoffs to be played on Nov. 12 and 16.

France, who could have been a major casualty if results elsewhere in the section had gone against them, instead powered their way to first place in the highly-competitive Group Four which had captured the imagination of fans and mathematicians for weeks. The permutations of who could finish where were endless and going into Wednesday’s final two games, Switzerland, Ireland, Israel and France were all in with a chance of advancing.

In the end France’s 4-0 win over Cyprus in Paris and Switzerland’s 0-0 draw with Ireland in Dublin meant the French qualified directly for the finals and the Swiss went into the playoffs.

France (20 points), Switzerland (18) and Israel (18) completed the qualifiers unbeaten.

Sweden were the third direct qualifiers on the night, sealing their place thanks to a 3-1 home win over Iceland who scored first in Stockholm. The Swedes came back strongly to win and finish second in Group Eight behind Croatia, qualifying along with Poland as the two best runners-up in the tournament.

Poland, who started the day as Group Six leaders, ended in second place after losing 2-1 to England at Old Trafford to give Sven-Goran Eriksson’s team top spot.

Netherlands, who won the group with their 2-0 win in Prague on Saturday, finished the campaign unbeaten with a 0-0 home draw against Macedonia. Slovakia also reached the playoffs after a 0-0 draw with Russia who were eliminated in Group Three.