Al Hilal advance to ACL semi-final after winning Lekhwiya on aggregate

Sport360 staff 09:31 16/09/2015
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  • High-flier: Al Hilal scorer Carlos Eduardo leaps to avoid Ahmed Yasser’s tackle.

    Al Hilal advanced to the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League for the second season in a row after Georgios Donis’ side were held to a 2-2 draw by Qatar’s Lekhwiya in the second leg of their quarter-final encounter at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium.

    The result meant Al Hilal secured a 6-3 aggregate win over the Qatar Stars League champions and will meet either the UAE’s Al Ahli or Naft Tehran from Iran in the semi-finals later this month.

    Carlos Eduardo increased Al Hilal’s advantage in the 25th minute, slotting the ball past Amine Lecomte with a composed finish into the corner.

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    But goals from Ismail Mohammed and Chico Flores gave Lekhwiya a glimmer of hope before the Saudi Arabian side closed out the game through Digao three minutes from time.

    Meanwhile, Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Guangzhou Evergrande scrapped their way into the semi-finals as they fought out a bad-tempered 1-1 draw for a 4-2 aggregate win over Kashiwa Reysol.

    Huang Bowen’s sumptuous first-half equaliser provided a rare moment of quality at Tianhe Stadium with the second period more notable for robust challenges and yellow cards.

    Chelsea-linked defender Zhang Linpeng was lucky to stay on the pitch after he went in two-footed on Ryosuke Yamanaka, and Feng Xiaoting and Kim Young-Gwon also saw yellow.

    Scolari, who arrived in June, will be keen to secure the wealthy Chinese club’s second Asian title just a year after his World Cup flop on home soil with his native Brazil.

    The no-nonsense coach earned a reputation for his uncompromising style after a series of pitchside bust-ups while coaching league football in his home country.
    It showed a different side to Guangzhou, usually better known for the sort of free-flowing attack which earned them a 3-1 win in Kashiwa in last month’s first leg. 

    They will now play the winners of tonight’s second leg between Gamba Osaka or Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, a tie delicately poised at 0-0 from the first leg in South Korea.

    Gamba will be without suspended leading scorer Takashi Usami and injured midfielder Kotaro Omori for the match. But with a seven-game unbeaten run in the competition, coach Kenta Hasegawa was confident about progression.

    “The most important factor to winning against Jeonbuk is two-fold,” the 49-year-old former Japan winger said, who led Gamba to the domestic treble last season after his appointment in 2013 following their relegation from the J League.

    “The first, and most important thing, is to have a stronger will to win than our opponents, the second is to play our Gamba style of football.

    “We have to believe in ourselves that we can do it. We have to win this match to get into the next round.  

    “Despite our absences, we just have to pull all the players available together and score the goals that will help get the win. Jeonbuk have good physical strength and they take advantage of that. 

    “It’s going to be a tough match, but we have to ensure we play our style of football, it all comes down to that.”

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