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| Alves celebrates giving his side a great chance of reaching the semis [AFP] |
Magno Alves scored his second goal of the match six minutes from time to cap off Umm Salal's stunning comeback win over Seoul in the first leg of the Asian Champions League quarter-finals in Doha.
Jung Jo-gook's double had put Seoul in control at half time but Alves reduced the margin with a goal 11 minutes after the break.
Seoul had a chance to restore the two-goal buffer but were denied in the 67th minute when defender Ahn Tae-un's left-foot strike from just outside the area hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced back out.
TV replays showed the ball had crossed the line.
Fabio Cesar levelled in the 83rd when he he controlled Alves' pass on the left edge of the area and cleverly angled it past the Korean goalkeeper.
A minute later, Alves regathered a long ball between two Seoul defenders before driving in a low shot from just outside the box to give the Qatari minnows a chance to progress to the semi-finals.
Scolari on top
World Cup winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari's Bunyodkor will take a two-goal advantage into the return leg of their quarter-final after beating South Korea's Pohang Steelers in Tashkent.
Server Djeparov's two late goals sealed Bunyodkor's 3-1 win over Pohang, who had taken the lead in the seventhth minute via No Byung-jun's strike from the edge of the box from Kim Jung-kyum's floated left-wing cross.
Bunyodkor equalised on Victor Karpenko's volley in the 30th and, with Pohang down to 10 men for the last half hour after defender Kim Hyung-il was red carded, Djeparov turned in two Jasur Hasanov crosses in the last 11 minutes.
Pohang were denied another valuable away goal in stoppage time for offside.
"It was a very important game to win. There were moments in the match when they were the better side and sometimes when Bunyodkor were the better side, we both played beautiful football," said Scolari.
"We now hope that we will go through but the result is not 3-1, the result will not be decided until the last minute in Pohang."
Frontale assault
Kengo Nakamura and Juninho scored two quickfire goals in four second-half as Kawasaki Frontale rallied for a 2-1 win over Nagoya Grampus in Tokyo.
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| Juninho gave Frontale early bragging rights in Japan [AFP] |
Australian striker Josh Kennedy gave Nagoya an away goal in the 28th minute with a header at the far post off Naoshi Nakamura's floated cross.
But Kawasaki equalised on the hour when Japan international Kengo Nakamura threaded a free kick through Nagoya's defensive wall.
After missing first-half scoring chances with a misdirected header in the 32nd minute and having a shot blocked in the 39th, Brazilian striker Juninho produced the winner with a right-foot shot from close range in the 63rd.
"Nagoya are a strong side and it was extremely difficult for us to win against them today but my players stayed focused and got the job done," Kawasaki manager Takashi Sekizuka said on Wednesday.
"But we are only at half time in this tie.
"We must prepare well and hopefully we will be able to play our brand of soccer in the next game."
The remaining first-leg match will be played Thursday with Pakhtakor hosting Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia in Uzbekistan.
Return matches are next week, with the winners advancing to home-and-away semi-finals on October 21 and October 28.
The ACL final will be held in Japan on November 7 with the winners clinching a spot at the club World Cup at Abu Dhabi in December.
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