Late penalty denies Sepahan win [VIDEO]

PFDC – RIYADH, A penalty in injury time by Al Ahli canceled out Sepahan’s lead which had lasted until the 94th minute of a semi-fast paced Asian Champions League match in Riyadh.

The Iranian-Saudi face off was slow in first 35 minutes, with a Bruno Cesar shot being the only sign of a meant-to-be “intense rivalry”.
In the 35th minute Bruno Cesar then put the ball past Abdullah Al Muaiouf with ease, giving Sepahan the upper hand until very late in the game.

Cesar again had a one-on-one opportunity to put Sepahan two goals ahead, but his weak shot was cleared off the line by an Al Ahli defender.

15 minutes after the restart, Sepahan’s Mahdi Karim unleased a long shot which went over the crossbar.

After almost 70 minutes, Ahli’s Mansour Al-Harbi passed the ball to Amad Hosni after an impressive run, which ended in a golden chance for the Saudis to equalize, but Sepahan keeper Rahman Ahmadi impressively saved the shot from close range as he had no plans to let the home team restore parity.

The two time winners of the Saudi Premier League piled on the pressure, mostly controlling possession till the final whistle. This pressure finally payed off when Victor Simoes fell to the ground in the penalty area four minutes into injury time. The Uzbek referee pointed at the spot and just seconds later Victor sent his penalty to the bottom right, just centimeters from Rahman Ahmadi’s hand.

The acceptable draw in Riyadh puts ‘Asia’s Yellow Storm’ on top with four points after two games while Al Ahli remains on the bottom with just a single point.

Sepahan will play Lekhwiya of Qatar on April 3rd in Isfahan.

Below come the goals from PFDCTV.