Doha: Former Qatar Stars League winners Lekhwiya bounce from their first leg defeat to registering a stunning 4-2 win in the second leg over El Jaish in the AFC Champions league (ACL) and thus qualify for the quarter-finals on an aggregate score of 6-4.
Yesterday, Lekhwiya, who won the Emir Cup last week, did everything right to emerge clear winners and shatter El Jaish dream.
Lekhwiya had lost the first leg 4-0.
Elsewhere, FC Seoul came back from the brink to win a dramatic penalty shoot-out yesterday as Hao Junmin’s last-minute thunderbolt also put Shandong Luneng into the AFC Champions League quarter-finals.
In a breathless night of action, Go Yo-Han struck in the dying seconds of extra time against Urawa Red Diamonds -- the fourth goal of the extra periods -- to force the shoot-out, which Seoul won 7-6.
Urawa’s Yoshiaki Komai was the fall guy when his stuttering run-up and shot was easily saved by Yu Sang-Hun, before Seoul’s Kim Dong-Woo stroked the decisive spot-kick.
The 2013 runners-up were seconds from elimination after Tadanari Lee scored twice in three minutes deep into extra time, before Go’s fierce shot in the 122nd minute for 3-2 on the night and 3-3 on aggregate.
It wasn’t the only action-packed last-16 second leg as Hao’s rocket with seconds left against Sydney FC locked up the scores at 3-3 on aggregate but put China’s Shandong through on away goals.
Goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic’s late penalty save -- after he also stopped a spot-kick in the first leg -- seemed to have earned 10-man Sydney their first appearance in Asia’s last eight. But with the scores at 2-1 on the night, and 3-2 on aggregate after last week’s 1-1 draw, Hao’s long-range shot swerved past Janjetovic and into the top corner, stunning the Sydney crowd.
“There’s a lot of disappointments in football and there’s a lot of happy times -- this is an extremely disappointing time for the players,” an emotional Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold said afterwards.
“It took a great goal to beat us... all I can say is, these things happen in football,” he added.
Sydney got off to a dream start when Brandon O’Neill’s low free kick crept in the second minute, before Walter Montillo equalised 10 minutes later.
Sydney made a sensational start to the second period when, with less than a minute gone, Rhyan Grant blasted them 2-1 ahead from the right side of the box after being teed up by Milos Ninkovic.
Janjetovic’s penalty stop from Diego Tardelli, after Zac Anderson saw red for a foul, appeared to have put Sydney through, but their joy faded when Hao’s last-minute sizzler swerved into the top corner.Agencies
