Al Wahda Fight Back To Beat Al Sadd In ACL Elite
Doha, Qatar: Al Wahda FC impressed again after a second half fightback earned them a 3-1 win against Al Sadd SC in their AFC Champions League Elite encounter at Al Nahyan Stadium in Abu Dhabi day.
With Al Hilal SFC defeating Al Shorta, the win means the UAE side booked their Round of 16 spot with three matches to spare while Qatar's Al Sadd remain mired in the lower half of the standings with two points.
The visitors produced a couple of openings early on, Tarek Salman's overlapping run created a shooting opportunity for Paulo Otavio which he sent over before Roberto Firmino's lobbed attempt went off target.
Firmino's involvement, however, was curtailed in the 33rd minute with last season's Most Valuable Player subbed off with an injury and replaced by Rafael Mujica. The tie changed in an instance in favour of Al Sadd in the third minute added time after Ala Zhir used his arm to block Roman Saiss' header, giving referee Ryo Tanimoto no choice but to point to the penalty spot with Claudinho blasting home the spot-kick.
A rejuvenated Al Wahda took the game by the scruff of the neck in the second half with substitutes Facundo Kruspzky and Abdulqader Abdulla giving the home side more bite in attack.
Kruspzky forced Barsham to make a great save with his long distance strike before Abdulla recovered an overhit cross to set up Tadic for a fantastic finish on the turn to level things up in the 55th minute.
Al Wahda took full advantage of Pau Prim's slip in the 66th minute to edge ahead with Khribin snapping up the loose ball and driving towards goal before squaring for Tadic to confidently sidefoot home. The points were sealed for the United Arab Emirates side in the 87th minute, Tadic turning provider this time by lofting a pass for Caio Canedo who steered his effort past Barsham.
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