Saudi Arabian heavyweights Al Ahli edged past Japan’s Machida Zelvia to become the fifth club to win back-to-back AFC Champions League titles. In doing so, the Jeddah giants have secured qualification for the forthcoming edition of the FIFA Intercontinental Cup™, while they will also feature in the next instalment of the FIFA Club World Cup™.
Al Ahli goal: Feras Al Brikan (96)
Pre-match, the home side linked arms and stared down on a sprawling banner that took up a sizeable chunk of the back stand at Jeddah’s King Abdullah Sports City Stadium that read: Reaching the stars, where only the greatest belong.
In terms of those on the pitch, and the nebulae from which they’d sprung, the gulf between Al Ahli, the defending champions, and continental debutants Machida Zelvia, was light years apart.
A touch over a decade ago, Machida were playing at a semi-professional level in the suburbs of Tokyo. By that point, Al Ahli had more than two dozen domestic and regional titles to their name.
Throughout the knockout stage, the pair have also operated from vastly different philosophical stances. A Zelvia side, led by a former high school coach, that pride themselves on defensive solidity hadn’t conceded a goal in four knockout stage fixtures while a free-flowing Ahli outfit had plundered nine goals in their past four outings.
In a tense, stop-start, clash on the edge of the Red Sea it was far less attack against defence and more fracture meets friction.
Ahli enjoyed the better of the scant first half moments, with Machida keeper Kosei Tani snuffing out a flowing Galeno counter and the bar denying defender Merih Demiral.
Chances were at a similar premium after the resumption, but the restive drama wasn’t.
There were a pair of red cards as mist of the same hue descended on Al Ahli, the first of those for an inexplicable Zakaria Hawsawi headbutt, and the second for sideline squabbling.
In amongst those expulsions, Zelvia managed to fashion a pair of chances; the first a rasping Hiroyuki Mae drive and the second a low curler from Yuki Soma. Both of those were capably dealt with by Ahli’s Senegalese gloveman Edouard Mendy as the tetchy tussle went to extra time.
There, a goal scripted in Africa and published in the Kingdom finally won it, as Ivorian Franck Kessie met a cross carved out by the twinkling feet of Riyad Mahrez, with Feras Al Brikan on hand to sweep past Tani.
Al Ahli become the first side since fellow Saudi Arabian outfit Al Ittihad in 2005 to win back-to-back titles and now have a pair of FIFA tournaments to address as they aim to translate continental dominance into global impact.
“We’re so happy, it was difficult but we like to make it difficult for ourselves! After the red card we stuck together, we fought more, ran more until we scored so we’re just so happy.”
Riyad Mahrez, Al Ahli forward
