“Al Ain” Football Club, under the leadership of Argentine coach Hernan Crespo, reached the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League, defeating the Uzbek “Nasaf” in the return match of the 1/8 finals.
The game in the UAE ended with a score of 2:1. The first meeting of the teams in Uzbekistan ended in a goalless draw.
In the first half, the teams carried out sharp attacking actions, but the score remained 0:0. At the beginning of the second half, in the 51st minute, Akmal Mozgovoy opened the scoring after a corner kick.
However, the hosts went on the attack, and after 4 minutes Kojo Laba equalized the score. “Al Ain” continued to attack and in the 92nd minute Sofiane Rahimi scored the winning goal.
Saudi “Al-Nasr”, Korean “Jeonbuk Motors” and “Ulsan Horang”, Chinese “Shandong Luneng” and Japanese “Yokohama Marinos” also reached the quarterfinals.
This season, “Al Ain” was the opponent of the Turkmen “Ahal” in the group stage of the AFC Champions League. Both times the current quarterfinalists celebrated their victory - 4:2 at home and 1:2 away.