Latest news with #Salemal-Dawsari
Japan Times
26-04-2025
- Sport
- Japan Times
Al-Hilal surges into Asian Champions League semis by thrashing Gwangju
Al-Hilal powered into the semifinals of the Asian Champions League Elite in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Friday as Jorge Jesus' Saudi Pro League side demolished South Korea's Gwangju 7-0 to move closer to a record-extending fifth continental title. Goals from Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Marcos Leonardo and Salem al-Dawsari inside the first 33 minutes sent the four-time champion on its way, with Aleksandar Mitrovic, Malcom, Nasser al-Dawsari and Abdullah al-Hamddan on target after the interval. "The players who played today were under a lot of pressure but they played at their usual level," said Jesus. "Without their commitment we wouldn't achieve what we achieved today. We are on the right path." The result at a raucous King Abdullah Sports City Stadium means Al-Hilal will take on the winners of Saturday's quarterfinal between fellow Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli and Thailand's Buriram United. Al-Hilal, the continental champion in 1991, 2000, 2019 and 2021 and the runner-up on five other occasions, was several levels above the K. League side, which was appearing in the competition for the first time. Milinkovic-Savic gave the Saudi side the perfect start in the sixth minute, with the midfielder peeling away from his marker to meet Salem al-Dawsari's corner with a glancing header that beat Kim Kyeong-in for pace from the edge of the 6-yard box. Goalkeeper Yassine Bounou denied the South Korean squad the opportunity to strike back almost immediately when he blocked Jasir Asani's attempt after the Albanian winger had been played in behind the Al-Hilal defense. Gwangju was to rue that miss in the 25th minute when Leonardo doubled Al-Hilal's lead, with the Brazilian beating Kim low and at his near post when he met Malcom's cutback with a first-time strike. Eight minutes later, Salem al-Dawsari effectively killed the game after racing on to Leonardo's ball from deep inside the Al-Hilal half, outpacing the Gwangju defense before calmly sliding his shot to Kim's right. Mitrovic hit the fourth goal 10 minutes into the second half, making no mistake as he slotted in Milinkovic-Savic's bobbling cross from the right with a first-time finish. Malcom beat Kim with 11 minutes remaining and substitute Nasser al-Dawsari's deflected strike gave Al-Hilal its sixth goal five minutes later. Al-Hamddan's unstoppable right-foot shot in the 88th minute completed Gwangju's humiliation. The latter stages of the revamped Asian Champions League Elite are being played in Jeddah, with Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr due to face Yokohama F. Marinos on Saturday. Kawasaki Frontale take on Qatar's Al-Sadd on Sunday, with the semifinals to be held on Tuesday and Wednesday. The final will be played on May 3.
Al Arabiya
01-04-2025
- Sport
- Al Arabiya
Will Cristiano Ronaldo win the AFC Champions League Elite Golden Boot?
The AFC Champions League Elite reaches its finals stage this month as Saudi Arabia hosts the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final at the end of April. Three Saudi clubs – Al Ahli, Al Hilal and Al Nassr – are among the eight teams vying for continental glory. For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app. But beyond winning Asia's top club trophy, there is a secondary prize at stake for eight individuals still competing in this season's ACL Elite. One of them will become the first winner of the new-look tournament's Golden Boot – awarded to the competition's top scorer. Al Nassr captain Cristiano Ronaldo, Al Hilal's Saudi Arabian skipper Salem al-Dawsari and Al Ahli winger Riyad Mahrez are among those players in contention. Here, Al Arabiya English examines the octet of players out to become Asia's leading goal scorer. Jasir Asani (Gwangju) – 9 Goals The surprise name currently at the top of the ACL Elite scoring charts is Jasir Asani of South Korea's competition debutant Gwangju. Just a couple of years ago, Asani was playing in Hungary for now-Second Division side Kisvarda; fast forward to 2025 and he is fending off the likes of Ronaldo and Mahrez in a bid to be Asia's top scorer, having led the race for the Golden Boot since the very first game week. He scored a hat-trick in Gwangju's opening 7-3 victory over last season's losing finalist Yokohama F. Marinos, and has particularly thrived against Japanese opposition. The Albanian winger also netted the winning goal against Kawasaki Frontale in the group stage before inspiring Gwangju's come-from-behind win over Vissel Kobe in the last-16. Gwangju lost the first leg 2-0 but Asani's late penalty levelled the tie at 2-2 in the second leg, before the 29-year-old hit the match-winning goal with two minutes left in extra-time to send his team through. Salem al-Dawsari (Al Hilal) – 8 Goals A more familiar name sits just behind Asani in the top scorer rankings, with Al Hilal's captain Salem al-Dawsari having netted eight times this season. The two players will come face to face when Al Hilal meets Gwangju in the quarter-finals. Al-Dawsari's standout game so far was Al Hilal's 5-4 away victory over reigning champion Al Ain, in which he scored a 30-minute hat-trick to help his team gain a modicum revenge after losing to the Emiratis in last year's semi-final. The 2021 AFC Champions League MVP and 2022 Asian Player of the Year also found the net against Al Shorta, Persepolis and Al Wasl, while he put the punctuation mark on Al Hilal's last-16 triumph over Pakhtakor with his team's fourth goal in a 4-0 win. The 33-year-old is one of the continent's most decorated individuals but has never claimed an AFC Golden Boot trophy. Al Dawsari is currently fifth on the list of all-time leading goal scorers in the AFC Champions League on 29 goals and has a realistic chance of leapfrogging Brazilian Elkeson (30) and former Green Falcons star Nasser al-Shamrani (32) should Hilal progress further in this year's ACL Elite. The Saudi captain has already made more appearances (100) than any other player in the history of the competition; should he win his first AFC Golden Boot award it would cement his status as one of Asia's greatest ever players. Riyad Mahrez (Al Ahli) – 8 Goals One of two men level with Al Dawsari on eight goals is Al Ahli star Riyad Mahrez. The Algerian ace was a winner of the UEFA Champions League with Manchester City in 2023 and has taken to Asia's equivalent competition like a duck to water in his maiden campaign. Mahrez has scored in each of his past four games for Ahli, including a brace in the last-16 second-leg win against Qatar's Al Rayyan. Having also contributed seven assists, no-one in this season's ACL Elite has more than Mahrez's 15 goal contributions. The Algerian's performances have helped Al Ahli emerge as a genuine contender to win its first ever AFC Champions League title, with Matthias Jaissle's side the only unbeaten team left in this season's competition. The 2016 African Footballer of the Year scored 20 goals in the UEFA Champions League during his time with Leicester City and Manchester City, with seven of those coming in knockout games – against RB Leipzig, Sporting, Real Madrid, PSG and Borussia Dortmund. Ahli will be hoping he can replicate that sort of return in this season's ACL Elite finals stage. Anderson Lopes (Yokohama F. Marinos) – 8 Goals Another player who loves to score in continental knockout matches is Yokohama F. Marinos striker Anderson Lopes. The Brazilian's goals helped Yokohama reach last year's final, with Lopes netting in every round apart from the two-legged showpiece against Al Ain. He picked up where he left off this season and has bagged eight goals in his past eight games to help his team progress to a quarter-final against Al Nassr. Lopes' eight-goal haul includes a match-winning strike in the last-16 first leg away to Chinese Double winner Shanghai Port, while he added two more in a comfortable 4-1 home victory a week later. Lopes would actually be joint-top in the race for the ACL Elite Golden Boot but had the misfortune of having one of his goals chalked off. He scored against Shandong Taishan in the East Asian group stage but the Chinese club was later disqualified from this season's competition – meaning Lopes' goal in the 2-2 draw no longer counted. Cristiano Ronaldo (Al Nassr) – 7 Goals Aiming to end Lopes' hopes of winning the Golden Boot is Al Nassr captain Cristiano Ronaldo, who will be leading his side's line against Yokohama in their quarter-final on April 26. Ronaldo is a seven-time UEFA Champions League Golden Boot winner, as well as the European competition's all-time record goal scorer with 140 goals. He has starred in the AFC Champions League too since arriving at Al Nassr, netting six times as the club reached the quarter-finals last year and surpassing that total already this season. In the 2024-25 campaign, Ronaldo has only featured in six of Al Nassr's 10 matches but has averaged more than a goal per game. Among his seven goals were successive doubles against Qatar's Al Gharafa and UAE's Al Wasl in the group stage. The Portuguese No. 7 has only failed to find the net once – against Esteghlal – in this season's tournament, though he did break through the Iranians' defense at the second attempt; having missed the 0-0 last-16 first leg draw, Ronaldo made a scoring return to the starting XI to helping Stefano Pioli's team to a 3-0 second-leg win that sent it through. Akram Afif (Al Sadd), Aleksandar Mitrovic (Al Hilal), Ivan Toney (Al Ahli) – 5 Goals There are three players a couple of steps further back, who will need to demonstrate every ounce of their goalscoring pedigree if they are to chase down Ronaldo, Lopes, Mahrez, al-Dawsari and Asani. Reigning AFC Player of the Year Akram Afif has produced some virtuoso displays to drag his Al Sadd team through to a last-eight encounter with Japan's Kawasaki Frontale, while Aleksandar Mitrovic is finding his feet again after a lengthy injury lay-off – without which he may have been in closer contention for the ACL Elite Golden Boot. Last on the list of potential Golden Boot winners is Ivan Toney, who failed to score in each of his first four AFC games but has netted five in his past six continental contests.
Al Arabiya
19-02-2025
- Sport
- Al Arabiya
ACL Elite Week 8: Al Hilal, Al Ahli and Al Nassr complete Saudi clean sweep of top 3
The group stage of the newly rebranded AFC Champions League Elite continued this week, with three Saudi clubs in contention for Asia's most prestigious club trophy. Al Hilal, Al Nassr and Al Ahli are among the favorites to lift the continental title, although they face stiff competition from clubs in Qatar, UAE, Japan and South Korea. Here, Al Arabiya English selects the biggest moments from the eighth round of group stage fixtures as the final standings were confirmed – with the Kingdom's three clubs leading the way at the top of the table. Al Hilal stayed at the summit after beating reigning UAE champion Al Wasl 2-0, while Al Ahli – a 4-2 winner over Al Gharafa – finished second and Al Nassr progressed in third place, despite a 0-0 stalemate with Persepolis. Al Hilal holds on to top spot Salem al-Dawsari moved to the top of the 2024-25 ACL Elite scoring charts as his seventh goal in this season's competition helped Al Hilal to a 2-0 victory over Al Wasl in Dubai. The result ensured Al Hilal ended the West Asian group stage in first place – ahead of fellow Saudi outfit Al Ahli on goal difference – after completing an unbeaten campaign with seven wins and one draw. Al Hilal is a four-time Asian champion and after suffering heartbreak at the hands of eventual winner Al Ain in last season's semi-final, Jorge Jesus' side has returned with renewed vigor this season; only Qatar's Al Sadd took points off Al Hilal in the group stage, drawing 1-1 on Matchday 5. Against Al Wasl, it was Brazilian forward Marcos Leonardo who handed the visiting team the lead at Zabeel Stadium – poking the ball in from close range for his fourth goal in the ACL Elite and 21st goal in 29 games across all competitions. Al-Dawsari doubled the lead just after half-time, with the Al Hilal and Saudi Arabia national team captain drawing level with Gwangju's Janir Asani at the top of the ACL Elite scoring charts. Al-Dawsari has now scored 30 goals in 101 games in Asia's premier club tournament; he is the record appearance maker in the competition and will now have the chance to extend that tally in the last-16, when Al Hilal takes on Uzbekistan's Pakhtakor. Al Wasl lost on the night but is also through to the knockout round and will take on Al Sadd. Awesome Al Ahli advances in second place Al Ahli continued to look at ease on its return to Asia's premier club competition this season as it came back from conceding an early goal to dominate Qatar's Al Gharafa with a 4-2 victory in Jeddah. Four days earlier, Matthias Jaissle's Al Ahli had suffered a disappointing 3-2 home loss to Al Nassr in the Saudi Pro League; in the AFC Champions League Elite, however, the team continued to show its dominance. Al Ahli has beaten the champions of Iraq (Al Shorta), Qatar (Al Sadd), UAE (Al Ain) and Iran during a hugely successful group stage campaign. It was only denied top spot in the 16-team league thanks to Al Hilal's better goal difference. Unusually this season, Al Ahli found itself behind on Monday night, as Joselu stepped up in the sixth minute to score from the spot for Al Gharafa after Spanish midfielder Gabri Veiga handled in the box. But from that moment, Al Ahli exerted its authority on the match. Fifteen minutes after Al Gharafa's opener, Jaissle's side was level through Ivan Toney – the Englishman converting from Riyad Mahrez's pull-back to net his fifth goal in this season's ACL Elite. Al Ahli captain Roberto Firmino then put his side ahead, sliding the ball home at the back post to make it 2-1. By half-time, the host was out of sight. New signing Galeno, who arrived from Portugal's FC Porto in January, scored his first for Al Ahli after Al Gharafa goalkeeper Sergio Rico spilled his shot into the goal. Early in the second-half, Al Ahli extended its lead further as Algerian winger Mahrez added his name to the scoresheet, converting a penalty after team-mate Toney was fouled. It saw Mahrez join Toney on five goals in the 2024-25 ACL Elite. A late Yacine Brahimi penalty couldn't spoil the party as Al Ahli celebrated finishing second in the West Asian table – booking a last-16 date with another Qatari team, Al Rayyan. Ronaldo-less Al Nassr held in Iran Al Nassr and Persepolis shared the spoils in an uneventful 0-0 draw in Tehran that kept Stefano Pioli's side third in the final West Asian standings. Al Nassr will now play Iranian club Esteghlal in the last-16, while Persepolis fell agonizingly short of making it through – missing out to Uzbekistan's Pakhtakor on goal difference alone. With Al Nassr already through, Pioli rested a host of big names; Cristiano Ronaldo, Jhon Duran and goalkeeper Bento were all left out of the trip to the Azadi Stadium, while Sadio Mane was on the substitutes' bench. Bento's absence gave a rare opportunity to Raghed al-Najjar, with the Saudi shot-stopper making his first Al Nassr appearance since last May. Al-Najjar showed no signs of rust in the first half in Iran as he saved well to deny Mohammad Khodabandelou with a smart save. At the other end, Al Nassr's best chance fell to Ahmed Yahya, who scored against Al Ahli at the weekend but slid the ball wide with the goal at his mercy against Persepolis. The result marked the second successive 0-0 draw between Al Nassr and Persepolis, who also faced off in the AFC Champions League group stage last year. Al Nassr won 2-0 in Tehran before the teams played out a stalemate in Riyadh. Persepolis does, however, still have bragging rights from the biggest match the clubs have ever played against each other, with the Iranian team beating Al Nassr in the 2020 AFC Champions League semi-final on penalties. Best of the rest Esteghlal secured its place in the ACL Elite last-16 courtesy of a 2-0 smash-and-grab victory at Al Rayyan that helped it leapfrog its opponent to finish in sixth place in the group stage. The Qatari host dominated the match in terms of possession and chances created but it was Esteghlal that proved more ruthless in front of goal; second-half strikes from Mohammad Reza Azadi and Alireza Koushki handed the Iranian visitor a win that sealed its progress. Reigning Uzbek champion Pakhtakor took the final West Asian spot in the knockout stage after beating Qatar's Al Sadd 2-1 at the Stadion Majmuasi in Tashkent. A pair of goals either side of half-time from Colombian striker Brayan Riascos was enough to seal victory for the home side. Both teams had a player sent off in the second-half, with Al Sadd's Adam Ounas and Pakhtakor's Sardor Sabirkhodjaev now unavailable for their respective clubs' last-16 first leg. Al Shorta rubbed salt into the wounds of defending Asian champion Al Ain, inflicting a 2-0 defeat that saw the UAE side finish bottom of the pile in ACL Elite group stage with just two points from eight games. Al Ain's remarkable fall from grace was completed by its Iraqi opponent, which humbled Leonardo Jardim's team in Baghdad. Second-half goals from Mahmoud al-Mawas and Lucas Souza handed Al Shorta its first win of this season's competition, though it was not enough for the Iraqi outfit to progress as it finished second-bottom.
