Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr suffered a heartbreaking exit from the Asian Champions League quarterfinals on Monday after falling 3-1 on penalties to Al-Ain.
Despite Al-Nassr’s valiant effort to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the primary leg and safe a 4-3 victory, the mixture scoreline stood at 4-4, resulting in a tense shootout. Unfortunately for Al-Nassr, their international abilities Miroslav Brozovic, Alex Telles and Otavio faltered from the spot, permitting Al-Ain to clinch victory.
Al-Ain goalkeeper Khalid Eisa emerged because the hero, redeeming himself with an important save from Brozovic’s preliminary penalty. With Soufiane Rahimi, Kaku and Sultan Al Shamsi efficiently changing their kicks, Otavio’s miss sealed Al-Nassr’s destiny.
Al-Ain now advances to the semifinals, the place they await the winner between Saudi golf equipment Al-Hilal and Al-Ittihad. This units the stage for one more thrilling encounter subsequent month.
The shootout dramatically ended an exciting conflict at Al-Awwal Park that featured seven targets and a crimson card, with Al-Ain constructing on their first-leg lead in the course of the opening 45 minutes.
Rahimi, the scorer of Al-Ain’s first-leg winner, put the guests in management with targets within the twenty eighth and forty fifth minutes. However, Abdulrahman Ghareeb’s strike 5 minutes into harm time saved Al-Nassr’s hopes alive.
Otavio’s low drive was redirected into his personal objective by Khaled Eisa six minutes after the restart and Alex Telles leveled the mixture scores 18 minutes from time with a low free kick that flew by means of a crowd of gamers to beat Eisa.
Al-Nassr’s Ayman Yahya was despatched off eight minutes into additional time for a vicious two-footed lunge on Bandar Al-Ahbabi. A minute later, Al-Shamsi thought he had scored the winner when he capitalized on Raghid Najjar’s dealing with error to poke house.
However, Ronaldo scored from the penalty spot with two minutes remaining after the Portuguese striker was taken down within the space by Saeed Jumaa, taking the sport to a shootout.
Ronaldo was the one considered one of Al-Nassr’s 4 penalty takers to efficiently convert as Al-Ain superior to the final 4 for the primary time since 2016.
In the japanese half of the draw, South Korean sides Jeonbuk Motors and Ulsan Hyundai will meet on Tuesday after sharing a 1-1 draw final week.
On Wednesday, Harry Kewell’s Yokohama F Marinos facet will hope to defend a 2-1 lead on house soil once they face the Chinese Super League facet Shandong Taishan.
Source: www.dailysabah.com