He Al sadd Qatari led by Xavi Hernandez, which has Santi
Cazorla As the star of the team, he was eliminated by Iranian Persepolis in the round of 16 of the Asian Champions League (AFC), with a goal in the 88th minute after a match to be forgotten.
After the stoppage due to the coronavirus, the AFC knockout round started in Taste with a confrontation that was expected to be disputed but that started on the wrong foot, with many inaccuracies in passing, few ideas in the front of the area and poor definitions in one on one by both teams.
The box Xavi He jumped onto the pitch with clear ideas, with a lot of order and discipline in the defensive ditch and in the middle of the field, but unable to penetrate the barrier of the Iranian team, which from the first moment closed ranks and limited itself to counterattack .
He Al sadd He looked for the door but did not find it from the boots of his center forward, the Algerian Baghdad Bounedjah, who threw his hands to his head every time he reached the rival area and found neither support nor space to shoot.
Cazorla, the best of the game, organized the game from a more backward position than usual and stood out with scandal passes, first-touch play and creating spaces that his teammates failed to take advantage of.
Lacking technique and discipline, the Persepolis He put out his chest in the second half and pulled with desire, physical and persistence, with counter-attack actions led by his two full-backs and his center forward, the Iranian Issa alekasair.
Alekasair scored the only goal of the game when everything indicated that the match would go into extra time, when he finished off a ball from a corner placed at the near post and placed it in the center of the goalkeeper's goal Saad al Sheeb, who did not see the leather coming (d. 88).
In injury time, the game heated up and the South Korean referee Hyung-Jin Ko began to distribute cards, one of them direct red to the right side of the Persepolis, Siamak
Nemati, for violent behavior.
With this result, the team of Xavi Hernandez, who until now had been the top scorer in the group stage of the AFC with 14 goals, he leaves the competition that takes place in Taste and in which teams such as the Vissel Kobe from also exblaugrana Andres Iniesta, who still have three group stage games left.
0 – Al Sadd: Saad al Sheeb; Pedro Miguel, Boualem Koukhi, Tarek Salman (Musab Kheder, m.92), Abdelkarim Hassan; Guilherme; Mohamed al Bayati (Hassan Al Heidos, m. 66), Tae Hee Nam (Rodrigo Tabata, m.90), Santi Cazorla, Akram Afif; Baghdad Bounedjah.
· 1 – Persepolis: Hamed Lak; Saeed Aghaei, Shoja Khalilzadeh, Hossein Kanaani, Siamak Nemati; Milad Sarlak (Kamal Kamyabinia m.84), Ahmad Nourollahi; Ehsan Pahlevan (Mehdi Abdi Qara, m.84), Vahid Amiri, Bashar Resan (Omid Alishah, m.84); Issa Alekasair.
Goals: 1-0, min. 88: Issa Alekasair.
· Referee: Hyung-Jin Ko, from South Korea. He admonished Vahid Amiri (m.64), Milad Sarlak (m.81), Issa Alekasair (89), Siamak Nemati (direct red, m.91), Baghdad Bounedjah (m.91).
· Incidents: Round of 16 of the Asian Champions League, played at the Education City Stadium in Doha (Qatar).
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