Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr They were eliminated from the Asian Champions League in the quarterfinals after the Saudi Pro League team lost 3-1 on penalties to Al-Ain in a vibrant match on Monday.
Al Nassr overturned a 1-0 deficit in the first leg to win 4-3 on Monday, but when the match finished 4-4 on aggregate, the players headed to a penalty shootout in which Al-Ain won. he imposed.
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Foreign imports Miroslav Brozovic, Alex Telles and Octavian neither of them managed to score from the penalty spot for Al Nassr as the UAE team advanced to the semi-finals, where they will face either of the two. Al-Hilal either Al-Ittihad (both from Saudi Arabia) next month.
Al Ain goalkeeper Khalid Eisa made up for his disappointing performance by saving Brozovic's first penalty and, together with Soufiane Rahimi, Kaku and Sultan Al Shamsi all converted, but Otavio's miss meant Al Nassr was eliminated.
The penalty shootout brought a dramatic end to a thrilling clash at Al-Awwal Park that featured seven goals and a red card, with Al-Ain building on their lead from the first leg during the first 45 minutes.
Rahimi, scorer of Al-Ain's victory in the first leg, put the visitors in control with goals in the 28th and 45th minutes, but Abdulrahman GhareebThe goal five minutes into added time kept Al Nassr's hopes alive.
Otávio's low shot was redirected into his own goal by Khaled Eisa six minutes after the restart and Telles leveled the score on aggregate 18 minutes from time with a low free kick that cut through a crowd of players to beat Eisa.
Al Nassr's Ayman Yahya was sent off for a vicious two-footed tackle on Bandar Al-Ahbabi eight minutes into extra time and, a minute later, Al-Shamsi thought he had scored the winning goal when he capitalized on a handling error by Raghid Najjar to score. .
But Ronaldo scored a penalty with two minutes remaining, after the Portugal The striker was brought down in the area by Saeed Jumaa, to take the match to a penalty shootout.
Ronaldo was the only one of Al Nassr's four penalty takers to successfully convert as Al-Ain advanced to the quarter-finals for the first time since 2016.
In the eastern half of the draw, South Korean teams Jeonbuk Motors and Ulsan Hyundai will meet on Tuesday after drawing 1-1 last week.
On Wednesday, Harry Kewell's Yokohama F Marinos team will hope to defend a 2-1 home lead when they take on Chinese Super League side Shandong Taishan.
