JEDDAH: Yesterday was a good day for Saudi clubs participating in AFC Champions League when Al-Ittihad and Al-Ittifaq scored important victories against Umm Salal of Qatar and Sepahan of Iran respectively.
On Tuesday, Hilal and Shabab failed to deliver victories and instead were dragged to drab draws.
Ittihad thus strengthened its position at the top of Group C while Ittifaq made up for its opening match loss in Group D.
In Qatar, Ittihad hammered out a 3-1 victory against Umm Salal to set the pace in the group with six points from two wins.
The Qatari team broke the ice in the 28th minute on a long distance shot from Ibraheema. Ittihad equalized through Hamad Al-Muntasheri in the 41st minute. Renato scored the second goal in the 56th minute and Busharwan completed Ittihad’s hat trick of goals in the 58th minute. Umm Salal is in second place with three points.
In another match in the group, Esteghlal Tehran of Iran and Al-Jazirah of UAE battled to a 1-1 draw. Though with one point apiece Esteghlal and Al-Jazirah are in third and last place respectively because of goal difference.
In Dammam, Ittifaq got back on track by beating Sepahan 2-1 at Prince Muhammad bin Fahd Stadium. Rasoul Khatibi put Sepahan first on the scoresheet with a 47th minute strike.
Ittifaq’s Abdul Rahman Al-Qahtani pulled one back for Ittifaq in the 64th minute before teammate Hamad Al-Hamad scored the winner in the 86th minute. Despite the defeat Sepahan remained on top of Group D with three points equal with Ittifaq which is second by virtue of goal difference.
In the other match of the group, Al-Shabab of UAE secured an important victory at home against Kuruvchi Bunyodkor of Uzbekistan 2-0. The result placed UAE team in third position of the group with three points and Kuruvchi Bunyodkor also with three points but in last place because of goal difference.
