Al-Nassr escaped a fright in the Asian Champions League on Monday, with the Saudi Pro League side recovering from a goal behind to inflict Tajikistan’s Istiklol a 3-1 loss in Riyadh. Cristiano Ronaldo scored a goal during the comeback effort, which helped Al-Nassr avoid the danger.
Istiklol maintained their composure in the face of unrelenting pressure until Ronaldo equalised the score with a deftly clipped finish in the 66th minute. Senin Sebai scored on a breakaway to put the club from Dushanbe in the lead with one minute remaining in the first half.
Six minutes later, Anderson Talisca put the Saudi side in lead with a header, and then with thirteen minutes left on the clock, Anderson Talisca put the game out of reach with a low shot that he stroked into the corner of the net.
The win was Al-Nassr’s second consecutive one in the group stage of the tournament, and it gives Luis Castro’s team a three-point lead over the rest of the teams in Group E.
Following their 1-0 victory against Al Duhail of Qatar, Iran’s Persepolis are now in second position. Omid Alishah scored the game’s only goal in the 63rd minute to give the 2018 and 2020 runner-ups their first win of the season.
The Group C match between Al-Ittihad and Sepahan of Iran was called off after the Saudi club’s players refused to come out of the locker room because a monument of the slain Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani had been put at the entrance to the field.
The Asian Football Confederation said that the match, which was scheduled to take place at the Naghsh-e Jahan Stadium in Isfahan, had been “cancelled due to unanticipated and unforeseen circumstances.” The game was supposed to take place on Sunday.
Ali Jasim scored his third goal in two Asian Champions League games to give the Iraqis a lead over the Uzbekistan club in the second minute to give Air Force Club a 2-0 lead against AGMK. Sanzhar Tursunov scored an own goal to double the advantage for the visitors. Air Force Club went on to win 2-1.
AGMK was able to get one back thanks to Siavash Haghnazari with nine minutes left, but Air Force Club was able to hold on for the victory and go up to four points, one point ahead of Al-Ittihad.
Uzbekistan’s Nasaf moved up to first place in Group B after securing their second victory in a row and defeating Qatar’s Al Sadd by a score of 3-1. Azizbek Amonov scored twice for Nasaf in the victory against Al Sadd.
Sharjah, from the United Arab Emirates, defeated Jordan’s Al-Faisaly courtesy to a goal scored by Moussa Marega in the 20th minute. Moussa Marega won the Asian Champions League with Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal in 2021. The club captained by Ruzikul Berdiev now has a two-point advantage over Sharjah.
The top 16 teams in the tournament are determined by a combination of the 10 group winners and the three second-place teams with the best records in each of the competition’s western and eastern halves.