Ronaldo nearly misses the Champions League after a late drama in Riyadh

On the day he introduced the most expensive signing of the summer (Otavio from Porto), Al Nassr almost experienced a difficult debacle in the qualifiers for the Asian Champions League. Although not in terms of results, the mere fact that one of the most popular clubs in Saudi Arabia and one of the richest in the world could not play in the strongest continental competition would certainly represent a serious failure. And everything was leaning towards the disaster scenario…

Shabab Al Ahly led 2:1 until the 88th minute, was within reach of a big celebration, a big sensation, but then we witnessed a crazy finish. Two minutes before the end, the home team equalized at 2:2, and then knocked out their rivals with two goals in stoppage time - 4:2. Yahia Al Ghassani, the left wing of the visiting team, had the role of hero in the pocket. He scored in the 18th and 46th minutes. He was assisted both times by the Israeli Mu’nas Dabbur. In this way, Shabab Al Ahly nullified Anderson Taliska's leading goal from the 11th minute, took the lead and practically kept the big favorite in check until the very end. However, that was not to be the final result. Sultan Al Ghanam lifted Riyadh to its feet when he found the net for 2:2, and after the second goal of Taliska in 90+5 and Marcelo Brozović’s in 90+7, there was a real explosion of enthusiasm. As a reminder, Al Nassr spent almost 150,000,000 euros on reinforcements in the past few weeks alone. In addition to the mentioned stars, Sadio Mane, Alex Telles, Seko Fofana also arrived...Now imagine that that team did not make it to the group stage of the Champions League.

Elsewhere in the west zone, UAE side Sharjah qualified for the tournament proper with a 3-1 victory away to Iran's Tractor FC, while Uzbekistan's Navbahor Namangan defeated Al Wakrah of Qatar 1-0 after extra time. In Tuesday's other play-off, Uzbek side AGMK Olmaliq defeated Qatar's Al Arabi 1-0.