Cristiano Ronaldo‘s honesty helped to nullify a penalty he was awarded as his 10-man Al-Nassr aspect held on to attract with Persepolis of Iran 0-0 within the Asian Champions League on Monday.
Ronaldo went down within the field within the opening moments and the referee pointed to the spot, however Ronaldo joined Persepolis gamers in disputing the penalty. Referee Ma Ning checked the pitchside monitor and overturned his determination.
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Al-Nassr defender Ali Lajimi was despatched off within the half for a harmful problem on Milad Sarlak, and Ronaldo gave his Saudi Arabia group a late scare when he exited with a neck harm.
The draw sees Al Nassr qualify for the knockout levels because the Group E winner with one match left to play. The Riyadh group got here into the sport having gained 18 of its earlier 19 video games in all competitions.
In the identical group, Qatar’s Al-Duhail earned its first win after defeating Istiklol of Tajikistan 2-0. Prolific Kenyan striker Michael Olunga scored each targets.
Earlier in Group C, Argentine coach Marcelo Gallardo picked up his first win since being appointed by Al-Ittihad this month after the Saudi Arabian champion defeated AGMK of Uzbekistan 2-1 to maneuver into the knockout levels.
Two targets in 4 first-half minutes from Moroccan striker Abderrazak Hamdallah gave Al-Ittihad the lead after Karim Benzema missed probabilities.
Late within the sport in Tashkent, Martin Boakye pulled a purpose again for AGMK.
“We needed to work exhausting from the primary whistle however we saved attempting to get ahead as a lot as we may and Hamdallah got here good with two well-taken targets,” Gallardo stated.
The highest group from every of the ten teams of 4 within the match, which is split into two geographic halves till the ultimate, advances to the spherical of 16 together with the six best-placed runners-up.