Youssef El Arabi (left) of Lekhwiya is locked in an aerial battle with an Al Jazira player during the AFC Champions League Group B opener at Abdullah Bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha yesterday. Lekhwiya won 3-0.
Youssef El Arabi bagged a brace as a dominant Lekhwiya claimed a 3-0 victory over Al Jazira in their 2017 AFC Champions League Group B opener at Abdullah Bin Khalifa Stadium yesterday.
The hosts opened the scoring 11 minutes into the game when El Arabi continued his fine goalscoring form of late by heading in Youssef Msakni’s cross from the right from six yards, before Msakni deservedly doubled the Qatari side’s lead with 10 minutes remaining.
El Arabi then tapped in from substitute Ali Afif’s centre in added time to wrap up a comfortable victory for Lekhwiya as the Emiratis’ winless run in the continental competition stretched to eight games.
Meanwhile, Chan Yuen-ting, head coach of Hong Kong's Eastern Sports Club, will become the first woman ever to guide a men's team in a continental competition when they kick off their Asian Champions League campaign at Guangzhou Evergrande today.
Eastern, the first team to represent Hong Kong at Asia's top club football competition, face a tough opening encounter at Chinese giants Guangzhou, who have twice won the competition.
The 28-year-old Chan led Eastern to the Hong Kong Premier League title last year, and will now test her mettle against Guangzhou's coach and former World Cup winner Luiz Felipe Scolari.
"It's quite amazing, especially when you watch the games when he was coaching Brazil and they won the World Cup in 2002," she told the Asian Football Confederation website (www.the-afc.com).
"I never imagined or expected this could happen but now we're going to play against him so I feel excited and I'm looking forward to meeting him.
"But I know at this moment all I need to do is focus on our team and concentrate on the work that we are doing."
