El-Ain, coached by Argentine Hernán Crespo, won this Monday in the penalty shootout against Al Nassr and left Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo out of the Asian Champions League after an intense duel in the second leg of the quarterfinals.
The CR7 team won 4-3 in extra time, after overcoming a 0-2 deficit at the beginning of the match, and thus managed to force the tiebreaker from the penalty spot. They had lost 1-0 in the first leg.
Moroccan Soufiane Rahimi, scorer of Al-Ain's winning goal in the first match, put Al Nassr even more on the ropes with a goal in the 28th minute, from a pass from Paraguayan Alejandro Romero 'Kaku', who took advantage of the advanced defense of the Riyadh team.
Once again Rahimi, the tournament's top scorer, dealt another blow that already seemed lethal to Portuguese Luis Castro's team in the 45th minute+1, against the ineffective local defense at the KSU Stadium. The overall tie was already 0-3.
The celebration of Al Ain, who eliminated Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr in the Asian Champions League.
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Al Nassr saw some light in the fifth minute of first-half replacement, when Abdulrahman Ghareeb scored at will from a pass from Sadio Mané, after a crazy start by goalkeeper Khalid Eisa chasing the Senegalese around the area.
Luis Castro's men definitively entered the tie in the 52nd minute thanks to an own goal by goalkeeper Eisa after an attempted cross from the right by the Portuguese Otávio.
From extension to elimination of Al Nassr
Extra time started with another mess for Al Nassr. Ayman Yahya was sent off for a harsh tackle on Al Abdullah Khaibari. Initially the local player saw the yellow card, but the referee reviewed the play on the VAR and changed it to a straight red card.
Al Ain took advantage of its numerical superiority and in the 103rd minute came Sultan Al Shamsi's goal to make it 3-3, but With one left in extra time, Cristiano Ronaldo scored a penalty committed on himself by Juma Hassan to make it 4-3 and send the duel to shots from eleven meters.
In the penalties only Cristiano scored his shot. The Croatian Marcelo Brozovic, Telles and Otávio failed. For Al-Ain, Rahimi, Kaku and Al Shamsi scored the three shots that were enough.
Al-Ain, champion of the tournament in 2003, will play in the semifinals against the winner of the match between the Saudi teams Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal, which will be resolved this Tuesday with a 2-0 advantage for the second.
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