TEHRAN: Al-Ahli from Dubai got the better of Naft Tehran by a solitary second half goal scored by Rodrigo Lima in the first leg of the Asian Champions League quarterfinal at the Azadi Stadium on Wednesday.

The only goal was headed into the net by Lima after he was set up by Everton Ribeiro following a corner in the 61st minute

It made up for an earlier first half miss from Lima who had headed wide from Ribeiro’s cross on the counter-attack.

The win gives Al-Ahli a huge advantage heading into the return leg of this fixture on Sept.16 at the Rashid Stadium, where an overall aggregate win would see them progress to the semifinals of this competition for the first time in their history.

In Seoul, the quarterfinal between the league winners of South Korea and Japan remains tightly poised after Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors and Gamba Osaka played out a scoreless in the first leg Wednesday.

The match in Seoul was an entertaining encounter that featured plenty of attacking endeavour but no goals.

Jeonbuk captain Lee Dong-Gook missed the best opportunity of the game midway through the second half, turning the ball narrowly wide of an open goal

The teams will meet again in the return match in Japan on September 16, with the winners advancing to meet either Chinese champions Guangzhou Evergrande or Japan’s Kashiwa Reysol in the semifinals.

Guangzhou are in firm control of that tie after a 3-1 win at Kashiwa in the first leg on Tuesday.

Jeonbuk won a 3-2 thriller when they last hosted Gamba in the competition nine years ago and the Korean side dominated possession in the opening half, outshooting their opponents by a wide margin.

However, they could not find a way through the visitors’ defense with Lee, the competition’s all-time leading scorer with 27 goals, missing their best chance just before half-time when he headed Choi Chul-Soon’s cross narrowly wide.

Gamba came more into the game after the interval and nearly broke the deadlock in the 58th minute with a shot on the turn by Patric that went just off-target.

But the best opportunity fell to the hosts in the 65th minute when they carved open the Gamba defense on a swift counter-attack initiated by Luiz Henrique on the left.

The Brazilian played in Park Won-Jae, who turned the ball past goalkeeper Masaaki Higashiguchi to an unmarked Lee. He stretched to make contact with the ball but failed to turn it into the gaping goal.

Higashiguchi was called into action with 12 minutes left when he made a fine stop to turn aside Leonardo’s fierce low drive from 25 meters as the teams settled for a goalless stalemate ahead of the second leg at Expo ‘70 Stadium in three weeks’ time.

Big win for Al-Hilal

Brazilian Carlos Eduardo struck twice as Saudi Arabi’s Al-Hilal made light of a supporter ban to beat Qatari champions Lekhwiya 4-1 at home in the first leg of their AFC Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday.

Ailton opened the scoring for last year’s runners-up after a goalkeeping howler, and although Tunisian Youssef Msakni drew Lekhwiya level, Khalid Al Kabi restored the lead before the Brazilian struck twice to bag the healthy advantage.

Hilal manager Georgios Donis was full of praise for his side’s efforts at the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh and was confident of finishing the job when the second leg takes place in Qatar on Sept.15

“I want to congratulate the players as we played in difficult conditions whether it was the weather or playing without the support of our fans,” the Greek coach told reporters.

“The players showed an excellent performance and we got a big win.”