Oliveira hat-trick inspires Al Jazira victory

Abu Dhabi: Al Jazira needed just 45 minutes and a dazzling performance from striker Ricardo Oliveira to help them trounce Nasaf of Uzbekistan 4-1 to secure their position as winners of Group A of the AFC Champions League on Wednesday night.

Al Jazira needed to win the match in order to ensure they play their one-off second round match at home, so they started the encounter pressing for early goals and it took them only five minutes to net when Matias Delgado's corner was returned by Lucas Neill for Bare to score.

And just eight minutes later Australian referee Peter Green awarded them a penalty when Bojan Malisic, the Uzbek sweeper, handled inside the box and Oliveira converted the spot-kick.

Oliveira added his team's third goal on 32 minutes following a penetrating pass from Delgado and then completed his hat-trick from another penalty awarded when Bare was fouled by keeper Gayratjon Hasanov.

Nasaf improved in the second half and Ilkhom Shomurodov scored their consolation goal in the 68th minute.

"I thank my colleagues for helping me to score a hat-trick but what was important was that we succeeded in securing the leadership of the group before our last match against Al Rayyan in Doha," Oliveira said after the match.

"It is important to play with the same standards if we want to go further in the competition and we should have the ambition to do that.

"We did we wanted in the first half and it was only natural to retreat in the second to avoid injuries and fatigue.

"It is not important which team we face in the second round but the important thing is to prepare our team for the knockout match and we have to believe in our capabilities and respect the opponents."

Caio Junior, Al Jazira's coach, said " We scored four goals in the first half and ended our task and it is natural that our players performed less in the second half because they realize that they had achieved what they wanted from the match and put the result beyond the reach of their opponents."

Regarding potential opponents in the knockout round of 16, Caio said: "It will either be Sepahan from Iran or Al Ahli from Saudi Arabia - we will be ready for either of them."