Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr know their opponents for the Asian Champions League quarter-finals

As expected, Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr have advanced to the final stage of the Asian Champions League. Both teams have star-studded squads. Elimination in the earlier stages would be a major disappointment. But who will they face in the quarter-finals?

Al-Nassr

The eighth-final draw has gifted the team with Cristiano Ronaldo an opponent from Saudi Arabia. However, Al-Feiha are languishing in 13th place in the table in the domestic competition and have no standout star in their squad. So it was to be expected that Al-Nassr would handle their opponents with relative ease.

The first match was as expected. Al-Nassr outplayed their opponents and did not allow a single shot on target. The Yellow and Blue produced 14 shots, but only 3 were on the home goalkeeper. Cristiano Ronaldo scored the only goal of the game in the 81st minute to give his team the narrowest of leads going into the rematch.

The second match was in a similar vein to the first, with Al-Feiha again failing to fire on the opposition’s goal and Al-Nassr dominating throughout the match. When Otávio asserted himself early in the match, there was no doubt who would advance. Cristiano Ronaldo then closed the scoring account again at the very end.

Al-Nasser’s quarter-final opponent will be Al-Ain, a team from the United Arab Emirates. Al-Ain secured their qualification with a 2-1 home win against Uzbekistan-based Nasaf Qarshi. Mané, Ronaldo and co. also seem to have one of the easiest options for the quarterfinals.

Al-Hilal

Al-Hilal faced Iranian side Sepahan in the eighth round. Relatively calmly, the Blue and Whites won both matches 3-1 and secured qualification. However, the scoring account of the first match, played in Iran, was opened by the hosts and Al-Hilal had to catch up. Malcom equalised in the 57th minute and the visitors turned the match around in the 4th minute of the set-up with a goal from Mitrovic. Al Hamdan then added another goal in the 7th minute of stoppage time.

The second match started similarly to the first one, with the opponents again scoring first. However, the home side recovered in the last quarter of an hour with goals from Neves, Mitrovic and Al Dawsari. The team thus showed that it can fight for the biggest trophies even without the long-term injured Neymar.

In the quarter-finals, however, some of the best teams in Saudi Arabia will face each other. Al-Hilal will face Al-Ittihad. Cannonballer Benzema has returned to the Jeddah team after helping them advance against Navbahor Namangan of Uzbekistan. It will almost be an early final as the Saudi clubs are among the biggest favourites.

Schedule for the semi-finals

If Al-Nassr can handle their match against the Iranian side, nothing easy will await them in the semi-finals. In fact, in the semi-finals, it will face the winner of the duel between Al-Hilal vs Al-Ittihad, in case of a clash with Al-Hilal it will be an early final of the whole competition. The most anticipated duel could thus be seen a stage earlier than we would have liked.

Source: Saudi Pro League, AFC