Abu Dhabi: Riding on a goal apiece from Omar Abdul Rahman, Asamoah Gyan and Jires Kembo-Ekoko, Al Ain thrashed Naft Tehran 3-0 in the last group B fixture of the AFC Champions League at the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium on Wednesday.

Al Ain, who have topped the group with 12 points, will now meet their local arch rivals Al Ahli — who rallied twice from behind to beat Tractor Sazi Tabriz 3-2 in their final Group D match on Tuesday and qualified for the Round of 16.

Despite the result, Naft Tehran also made it to the next round. The Iranian club faced a must-win against Al Ain or else had to await the result of Saudi outfit Al Shabab and Uzbek side Pakhtakor to keep their hopes alive. With bottom-placed Al Shabab shocking Pakhtakor 2-0 at home, Naft Tehran also made it to the round of 16, finishing on second spot behind Al Ain with eight points.

The visitors also had their chances. In the 19th minute, a free-kick from Iman Mobali was followed with a well-directed header from Leandro Padovani but an alert Al Ain custodian Khalid Eisa did well to tip it over the framework.

In the 35th minute, Naft Tehran’s forward Arsalan Motahhari, latching on to a long ball, beat an onrushing Eisa with a grounder but the ball somehow found the left bottom of the vertical. Immediately after that, Al Ain’s star striker Gyan missed a sitter. Medio Ebrahim Diaky’s lob found Gyan unmarked inside the box — but the latter ended up shooting straight onto the outstretched hands of Naft Tehran custodian Ali Reza Beiranvand.

Both teams went into the breather without disturbing the scores, but Naft Tehran upped the tempo after the change of ends. Their medio Bozar Abbas twice came up with long range efforts but only to see them go wide.

Omar Abdul Rahman left the Naft Tehran defence-line spellbound with his ball skills in the 64th minute to put Al Ain in the lead. After cutting past three defenders, he took aim for goal with a left-footed effort and the ball — after bouncing from a rattled defender Saeed Lotfi — caught goalkeeper Beiranvand on the wrong foot.

A pumped up Al Ain made it 2-0 when Gyan blasted the net after a long ball from Omar landed at his foot after deflecting off Mohammad Ahmad. Kembo-Ekoko then got into the scoring act, when after substitute Rashed Eisa’s shot found the upright and came back in play. All an overlapping Kembo-Ekoko had to do was to tap it into the open goal.