Lee puts paid to Ahli hopes

Al Ahli's hopes of progressing from the group stage were ended last night when a goal two minutes into stoppage time from the Korean, Lee Young Pyo, gave Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia a 3-2 win at the Rashid Stadium. Lee was quick to score from a sliding effort after the Brazilian Thiago Neves had sent a through pass into the box. It was in contrast to last week's game when Hosny Abd Rabo, the Egypt international, scored an equaliser for Ahli from a free kick in added time for a 1-1 draw in Saudi Arabia.

It looked like a similar heart-breaking story for the Saudi side until Lee's late goal. Yasser al Qahtani had put them in front with a ninth-minute header and the Swede Christian Wilhelmsson doubled the lead six minutes later with Neves setting up both goals. He sent a cross for the Saudi international to get in between Ali Abbas and Saad Suroor to score, while Wilhelmsson exchanged passes before drilling the ball past a hapless Yousil al Zaabi from inside the box.

Ahmed Khalil cut down the visitor's early two-goal lead with a 42nd minute strike. Salem Khamis set Madanchi up on the right flank and the Iranian's neat pass into the box allowed Khalil to tap on to the far corner of the net. The Brazilian, Celderson Cezar, scored the equaliser in the 66th minute. Hilal enjoyed some good fortune with Khalil's free-kick crashing against the crossbar in the 74th minute as Ahli pressed for a winner.

The win took Hilal clear on top of the Group C on 10 points. The Qatari champions, Al Sadd, and Mes Kerman of Iran are on six each - Mes Kerman were 3-1 victors last night - with Ahli on one. apassela@thenational.ae