Abu Dhabi: Hosts Al Wahda were punished with a 3-0 win by Saudi Arabia ‘s Al Ittihad in a Group C match of the AFC Champions League (ACL) football championship on Tuesday.
The UAE Pro-League champions missed quite a few chances and the two-time AFC Champions League winners punished them with two first half goals and added another late in the game to notch up their third win in three games.
Earlier in the same group Uzbekistan’s Bunyodkor and Iran’s Piroozi played out a 0-0 draw to leave the two clubs along with Al Wahda with two points each after three games.
Abdelmalik Ziaya opened Al Ittihad’s account when he shot home a pass from Portugal’s Paulo Alves and then during injury time of the first half Manaf Aboshgair’s shot took a deflection and beat Al Wahda goalkeeper Adel Al Hosani.
After Mohammad Al Shehhi missed an easy chance Al Wahda’s Brazilian players Magrao and Henrique Hugo saw their efforts hit the bar on either side of the break.
Even as Al Wahda kept piling pressure on the rival goal it was their own goal that fell for the third time, this time through a rather freak effort.
Alves fired a free-kick from the left and Al Hosani was left baffled as the ball came of Hugo’s head and then bounced into the goal after hitting the Al Wahda keeper’s head.
