AFC Champions League: Bounedjah the saviour as Al Sadd edge past Persepolis

Doha: Baghdad Bounedjah netted a dramatic late winner to give Qatar’s Al Sadd a 1-0 win over Islamic Republic of Iran’s Persepolis in their Group D clash on Matchday Two of the 2019 AFC Champions League.

Both sides were looking for their first win of the competition, and that attacking intent resulted in end-to-end action early on. Persepolis were unlucky not to score in the ninth minute after somehow failing to tap the ball in during a goalmouth scramble.

Al Sadd’s Akram Afif then saw his curling effort take a deflection and miss the goal by inches. Over at the other end, Al Sadd goalkeeper Saad Al Sheeb produced a stunning reflex save to deny Ahmed Noorollahi.

In the 35th minute, Bounedjah had a give-and-go with Afif but failed to direct his header away from the hands of Persepolis custodian Alireza Beiranvand. Ali Alipour then stole the ball off Pedro Miguel and had a go at goal but saw his shot go wide.

At the stroke of halftime, Al Sadd had the ball in the net after Bounedjah nodded in from close range but the linesman ruled the effort out for offside.

The hosts upped the tempo as the second half kicked off, producing a flurry of chances to keep Beiranvand busy. The Iranian international came up with two excellent saves to keep out Bounedjah in the 50th and 58th minutes.

In the 78th minute, right after Al Sadd had a penalty appeal waved away, Persepolis broke away on the counter which ended in Al Sheeb keeping out Bashar Resan’s shot.

Just as the match seemed to be heading towards a stalemate, Bounedjah struck the winner for Al Sadd after nodding in Hassan’s headed pass across the goalmouth.

MATCH DETAILS

Al-Sadd x Persepolis

AFC Champions League – Group D – Matchday Two

Lineups:

Al-Sadd: Saad Al-Dosari, Pedro Miguel, Tareq Salman, Hamid Ismail (Khoukhi Boualem), Abdelkarim Hassan, Salem Al-Hajri, Gabi, Jung (Ali Asad), Baghdad Bounedjah, Hassan Al-Haydos, Akram Afif

Persepolis: Alireza Beiranvand, Shojae Khalilzadeh, Seyed Jalal Hosseini, Bashar Resan (Soroush Rafiei), Ahmed Noorollahi, Mahdi Torabi (Ehsan Hosseini), Kamalidin Kamyabiniya, Mehdi Shiri, Mario Budimir (Siamak Nemati), Mohammad Naderi, Ali Alipour

Result:

Al-Sadd won 1-0

Bookings:

Shojae Khalilzadeh 36′

Mehdi Shiri 62′

Akram Afif 89′

Baghdad Bounedjah 90+6′

Goals:

Baghdad Bounedjah 90+5′

Referees:

Match referee: Kim Dong-jin

Linesman 1: Bang Gi-yeol

Linesman 2: Park Sagn-jun

Fourth official: Kim Dae-yong