Melbourne Victory scored twice in the opening 17 minutes and held off Japan’s Gamba Osaka 2-1 on Tuesday to secure a place in the second round of the Asian Champions League (ACL).
Melbourne finished second in Group G behind Shanghai SIPG, who were already assured of first place ahead of their 3-0 loss to two-time continental champions Suwon in South Korea.
Suwon’s hopes of progression depended on a win at home and a loss for Melbourne.
Photo: AFP
Kim Gun-hee opened with an early penalty for Suwon, and scored again in the 55th minute, three minutes after Min Sang-gi.
In Melbourne, Besart Berisha’s 13th-minute penalty and Archie Thompson’s well-time finished from Kosta Barbarouses’ cross gave the Victory a buffer.
Melbourne hung on to finish with nine points, level with Suwon, but had the tiebreaker courtesy of an away goal in their head-to-head matches.
It was Melbourne’s first trip to the knockout stage in five ACL campaigns.
“It is a big achievement,” Victory coach Kevin Muscat said. “It is great for the football club and we have managed to create some history for a couple of times this year.”
Australia are to have two teams in the second round for the first time after Sydney topped Group H, despite finishing the stage with a 1-0 loss at big-spending Guangzhou Evergrande. Guangzhou, last season’s champions, scored through Gao Lin in the second minute and withstood a strong challenge from Sydney to finish a disappointing campaign with a win.
“If you had said to me before we started that we would top the group ... I would not have believed it,” Sydney coach Graham Arnold said. “We have worked extremely hard, our performances have been excellent ... now we get to play another Chinese team in Shandong, which will be a very tough game.”
Urawa Reds finished second after being held to a 1-1 draw by Pohang Steelers, who were last in the group.
Sydney open against Shandong in China on May 18, and the return match is to be played a week later in Sydney. Melbourne open at home on May 17 against the Group E winners, which was to be determined after yesterday’s matches.
In games in west Asia on Tuesday, Tractorsazi Tabriz of Iran qualified first in Group C, despite a 2-1 home loss to second-placed Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia, who are also through to the knockout round. Pakhtakor of Uzbekistan had a 3-0 home win over Al Jazira of United Arab Emirates, and both teams failed to qualify.
In Group D, El Jaish of Qatar and Al Ain of United Arab Emirates qualified for the second round. Al Ain defeated Nasaf of Uzbekistan 2-0, while El Jaish finished first in the group, despite losing 2-0 away to Al Ahli of Saudi Arabia.
Danilo Asprilla and Ismail Ahmed scored in inaugural ACL champions Al Ain’s win. Asprilla scored six minutes before the end of the first half and Ahmed added a second in the dying moments for Al Ain, who qualified second because of an inferior head-to-head record against El Jaish.
“We played with an offensive performance in the first half and controlled proceedings,” Al Ain coach Zlatko Dalic said. “We were the better side.”
In other round-of-16 matches set for May 17, Tractorsazi Tabriz are to play the Group A runners-up, while Al Hilal take on the winners from Group A.
Also, Shanghai take on the Group E runners-up, while Melbourne play that group’s winners, and El Jaish play Lekhwiya of Qatar, who have already clinched second place in Group B ahead of that group’s final set of matches yesterday.
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