Al Ain: Al Ain made up for losing their Arabian Gulf League title to Al Ahli last week by booking their place in the AFC Champions League last 16 on Tuesday evening with a comprehensive 2-0 home victory over Uzbekistan’s Nasaf.
Colombian winger Danilo Asprilla struck six minutes before the end of the first half and Esmail Ahmad added a second on the stroke of full time for the Boss, who advance to the next phase as runners-up in Group D behind El Jaish thanks to an inferior head-to-head record against the Qatari side.
The win marked a fourth game without defeat for the inaugural ACL winners, who started the campaign with back-to-back losses to El Jaish before winning three of the next four games to advance to the knockout phase.
Elsewhere on Tuesday, Al Ain's AGL Al Jazira's Group C campaign ended as wretchedly as it began – with a fifth defeat in six games, a 3-0 thrashing away to Uzbekistan’s Pakhtakor.
But while Al Jazira, whose coach Henk ten Cate seems set for the axe, were timid, Al Ain were brave and bold.
Needing all three points to be sure of remaining in the competition, Zlatko Dalic's men showed their intent to dominate from the first whistle, with Douglas finding the side netting with his attempt inside the opening minute.
The home side pushed and probed continually, with their pivotal playmaker Omar Abdul Rahman unable to put enough curl on his 25th minute attempt to steer the ball inside Eldorbek Suyunov’s right post.
With six minutes remaining in the half, however, Al Ain took a deserved lead. Abdul Rahman, as ever, was at the heart of the move, sliding the ball into the path of Asprilla, who outpaced the Nasaf defence before lashing a low, right-foot shot under Suyunov and into the far corner.
Still Al Ain continued to push, with Fellipe Bastos twice unnerving the visitors' defence with fearsome, long-range attempts that ultimately proved to be harmless.
Douglas and Mohammad Abdul Rahman were wayward with their second-half attempts as Al Ain continued to apply pressure, before Bobir Abdixolikov almost hit the home side with a sucker-punch in the 76th minute, only for his shot to come back off the crossbar and bounce to safety.
That was as close as Nasaf would come to scoring in a game the Uzbeks also needed to win to keep their campaign alive, and Ahmad’s decisive header from Omar Abdul Rahman's corner in the 90th minute secured the win for Al Ain.
Their fellow UAE side, Al Nasr, can join them in the knockout phase if they draw with or beat Group A leaders Lokomotiv in Tashkent on Wednesday.
Ivan Jovanovic's men are second in the pool, a point behind the Uzbeks, having won two, drawn two and lost one of their six games.
