Ten-man Al Ahli Saudi came from behind to edge Johor Darul Ta\u2019zim 2-1 in their AFC Champions League Elite Finals Jeddah quarter-final last night to move a step closer towards retaining their title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In another match Machida Zelvia advanced to the semi-finals as Tete Yengi\u2019s deflected strike earned the Japanese side a 1-0 win over former champions Al Ittihad Club at Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Sports City Stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
JDT shocked Al Ahli with the opener from an Ali Majrashi own goal with the right-back then sent off for serious foul play but the Jeddah-based outfit equalised before half-time thanks to a Franck Kessie header.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Galeno produced a brilliant piece of magic after the interval with his superb long range strike sending Al Ahli through to a semi-final encounter with Japan\u2019s Vissel Kobe on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
JDT looked to frustrate Al Ahli early on with their defensive back five content to sit deep as the reigning champions dominated possession, with Eddy Israfilov\u2019s miscued clearance of Enzo Millot\u2019s cross looping backwards and sailing just over the bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Al Ahli continued to set the pace but against the run of play in the 19th minute, the Malaysian side broke the deadlock when Jairo outmuscled Roger Ibanez, drove into the box and sent the ball into the six-yard box, which to the dismay of the Al Ahli fans, was turned into his own net by the unlucky Majrashi as Marcos Guilherme bore down on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The home side looked for a quick response and Riyad Mahrez had the opportunity to pull them level after he was picked out by Goncalves but his low curling effort was parried away by Andoni Zubiaurre, with the surging Ivan Toney unable to connect to the rebound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Al Ahli\u2019s troubles deepened in the 37th minute when Majrashi was shown the red card after his overhead kick caught Jairo in the face, with the JDT striker stretchered off and replaced by Ager Aketxe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The defending champions refused to drop their heads as they continued pressing and were rewarded with the equaliser in the third minute of added time when Kessie rose unchallenged to thump home Galeno\u2019s in-swinging corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the numerical disadvantage, Al Ahli maintained their high tempo after the break and showed their pedigree when Galeno turned the tie in their favour in the 54th minute with a rasping shot from distance that gave Zubiaurre no chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chasing the game, JDT pushed higher up the pitch and replaced midfielder Natxo insa with forward Yago as the latter forced Edouard Mendy into a flying save in the 76th minute before the Al Ahli custodian stood firm to catch Israfilov\u2019s header.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matthias Jaissle\u2019s side kept their composure in the remaining minutes as Al Ahli ended JDT\u2019s hopes and keep their own dreams alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tete Yengi struck in the 31st minute to take the J1 League side into the last four for the first time and set up a semi-final encounter with either Thailand\u2019s Buriram United or Shabab Al Ahli from the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Machida\u2019s win came after an eventful second half that saw Al Ittihad hit the woodwork twice but Go Kuroda\u2019s tournament debutants held on to progress to the disappointment of the majority in the crowd of more than 16,000 spectators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moussa Diaby cut inside from the right to see an early effort blocked while Roger Fernandes blazed his attempt well off target as Al Ittihad made a spirited start. Diaby threatened again in the 11th minute, flashing a left-foot drive across Kosei Tani\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the backing of a raucous crowd, the home side dominated the early exchanges to leave Machida relying on counterattacks to cause trouble. Na Sang-ho did exactly that in the 17th minute, driving forward from deep only to hit a weak effort straight at Predrag Rajkovic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Japanese outfit were growing into the game, however, and Rajkovic had to be on his toes when Hiroyuki Mae shot towards goal, the Serbian goalkeeper tipping the ball over the bar in the 29th minute. Two minutes later Rajkovic was helpless as Machida went in front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kotaro Hayashi\u2019s long throw from the Machida right caused chaos in the Al Ittihad penalty area, the ball eventually falling at the feet of Yengi, whose shot towards goal was directed into his own net by Fabinho.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Halftime substitute Steve Bergwijn almost made an immediate impact for Al Ittihad, the Dutchman slaloming towards the Machida goal before stroking a right-foot shot marginally high and wide of the top corner of Tani\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Houssem Aouar went closer in 52nd minute, his deflected effort looping up beyond Tani before the ball bounced back off the Machida goalkeeper\u2019s right post while Youssef El-Nesyri nodded Abdulrahman Al Obud\u2019s centre across goal eight minutes later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Al Ittihad hit the woodwork again 17 minutes from time, El-Nesyri throwing himself at Al Obud\u2019s inviting cross from the right to head against Tani\u2019s left upright with the Machida goalkeeper beaten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Saudi side thought they had levelled with four minutes to go when Danilo\u2019s header looped over Gen Shoji on the line but referee Ma Ning ruled against Al Ittihad due to the ball brushing the Brazilian\u2019s hand on the way to goal to leave Machida to progress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ten-man Al Ahli Saudi came from behind to edge Johor Darul Ta\u2019zim 2-1 in their AFC Champions League<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-11799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-football"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Al-Ahli-beat-JDT.jpg",1094,615,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Al-Ahli-beat-JDT-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Al-Ahli-beat-JDT-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Al-Ahli-beat-JDT-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Al-Ahli-beat-JDT-1024x576.jpg",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Al-Ahli-beat-JDT.jpg",1094,615,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Al-Ahli-beat-JDT.jpg",1094,615,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Al-Ahli-beat-JDT-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Al-Ahli-beat-JDT-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Al-Ahli-beat-JDT.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11801,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11799\/revisions\/11801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}