Al-Hilal, the defending champions, managed to reach the semi-finals after beating Iran’s Foolad Khuzestan 1-0 on Thursday at Al-Janoub Stadium in Al-Wakrah in the quarter-finals of the 2022 AFC Champions League. for the western region Precious in favor of the crescent.
In the second leg of the quarterfinals, also on Thursday, Al Duhail of Qatar defeated Al Shabab of Saudi Arabia 2-1 at Al Tumama Stadium.
The semi-final match between Al Duhail and Al Hilal will take place on Sunday at Al Thumama Stadium.
On the other hand, the first leg of the final will take place on April 29 at the home of the qualified team from the Western Region, and the second leg will take place on May 6 at Saitama 2002 Stadium in Saitama (Urawa Red Diamonds Stadium). ).
The meeting between the two teams started quickly from the first minutes, in which there were many serious attempts, especially when Salem Al-Dossari passed the ball on the outskirts of the penalty area to his colleague Luciano Vito, who, in turn, shot him in the hands. from steel goalkeeper Christopher Kent in the 13th minute.
Iran’s Foulad relied on counter-attacks thanks to shots from team captain Sasan Ansari and playmaker Torres’ influential role in supplying the attackers with balls, but the minutes of the first half flew by quickly in light of Foulad’s inability and Al-Hilal to score.
In the second half, each team tried to take the initiative to reach the goal and a shot from Al Hilal’s Luciano Vito deflected three sticks from Foulada (48), he responded in kind and Torres landed a direct free kick that went safely over the crossbar to minute (62).
Vito almost opened the scoring for Al-Hilal when they hit the ball from outside the penalty area, but the goalkeeper Fulada shone, deflecting it for a corner (64), then the player tried again, but his ball went over the crossbar (66) . ).
The most dangerous moment of the meeting was in favor of the Iranian team Foolad, when Muhammad Khazbawi climbed a ball coming from a corner and headed it, which bounced off the crossbar (72), and the same player returned to again threaten Al-Hilal’s goal with another headbutt over the goal.
And everyone thought that the match was going to overtime. Musa Mariga was of a different mind when substitute Saleh Al Shehri’s pass put him in the face of the net to hit Foulad’s right corner, a precious advance goal (87).
The Iranian team tried to overcome the shock of a goal that came at a decisive moment, but Al-Hilal clung to victory and managed to play the remaining few minutes before the final whistle, which eventually declared the victory of the defending champion.
