AFC
Fahad al-Muwallad netted a brace as Al Ittihad came from behind to romp to a 5-1 victory over Qatar’s Al Rayyan at King Abdullah Sport City Stadium in Group B of the 2019 AFC Champions League yesterday.
The visitors opened the scoring halfway through the opening period. Korean midfielder Koh Myong-jin recovered an aerial ball in Al Ittihad’s half and the ball fell to Gonzalo Viera. The Uruguayan took it on the half-volley from well outside the box into the top corner.
Left-back Mansour alHarbi responded with a longrange piledriver, but goalkeeper Fahad Younis was alert and made the save. There was little Younis could do in the final minute of the first half when al-Muwallad and Abdulaziz al-Aryani exchanged a one-two sending the former through on goal. The Saudi international calmly placed his shot into the bottom corner to draw Al Ittihad level.
Before Al Rayyan could recover, Younis was picking the ball from the back of his net again. Al Aryani had turned from provider to scorer, converting Khaled al-Samiri’s squared pass past the wrong-footed goalkeeper to turn the tables on the Qataris just before the half-time break.
Coach Jose Luis Sierra’s men picked up from where they left off after the restart. Three minutes into the restart, substitute Carlos Villanueva sent an out-swinging cross from the corner for al-Harbi whose header was helped into the back of the net by fellow defender Ziyad alSahafi to make it 3-1. The Tigers continued to push forward, and the Al Rayyan defence yielded to the sustained pressure once more in the 70th minute.
Villanueva supplied a defence-splitting through pass to al-Muwallad who attempted to round Younis, but the Al Rayyan goalkeeper brought him down inside the box.