JEDDAH, 24 April 2008 — Al-Ittihad lost 1-0 yesterday in front of an angry home crowd against Sepahan of Iran in the AFC Champions League at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium here.
The defeat knocked Ittihad out of the top of Group A in the first round of the competition in which only the group winners advance into the quarterfinals.
The home team lost the lead to Quruvchi Tashkent of Uzbekistan who scored an away victory against Al-Ittihad of Syria to be top of the group on 9 points. The second Saudi side in the tournament, Al-Ahli, officially bowed out of tournament as they lost away to UAE’s Al-Wehda 2-1 in a Group C match.
The Jeddah Tigers again struggled to find the net and now face the real threat of exiting the tournament. Their inability score head cost them the Saudi Premier League title a few weeks back.
Despite dominating the first half, the yellow and black striped home team failed to pull in a goal from the number of chances provided to them throughout the quarter.
In the 13th minute, Brazilian forward Magno Alves’s header just missed the target, while teammate Hassan Keta missed the target on more than one occasion.
In the second half, Ittihad’s new Argentinian coach Gabrial Calderon was forced to substitute two players, star forward Alvis and defender Mohammed Al-Ghamdi.
While Ittihad were in search of the winning goal Emad Mohammed stunned the home crowd when he scored with ease after receiving a long pass from Iranian midfielder Sayed Mahdi Saleh in front of goal.
Al-Ittihad lost their way in the second half in the face of a strong Iranian defense
Meantime, China’s Beijing Guoan earned itself a renewed chance of reaching the Asian Champions League quarterfinals by beating Japan’s Kashima Antlers 1-0 yesterday. The result brought the Group F teams level on nine points with two games to play. With both to play modest opponents in the remaining two games, and having both recorded 1-0 home wins in their fixtures against each other, Kashima retains the edge in the race for the one quarterfinal spot thanks to a superior goal difference.
In other results yesterday, China’s Changchun Yatai’s quarterfinal ambitions took a blow when it conceded a late equalizer at South Korea’s Pohang Steelers in Group E as Australia’s Adelaide United opened a two-point lead with a 4-1 win over Vietnam’s Binh Duong.
In Group G, Japan’s Gamba Osaka had a 2-0 win over Melbourne Victory that eliminated the Australian club from quarterfinal calculations, and extended Gamba’s group leadership. Thailand’s Chonburi scored in injury time to force a 2-2 home draw against South Korea’s Chunnam Dragons. — With input from Associated Press
