Esteghlal had won the previous encounter 2-1 two weeks ago, but Al Hilal remained top of the group with six points going into Matchday Four.

Al Ittihad had won their previous encounter against Lokomotiv on Matchday Three thanks to an added-time penalty from Fahad Al Muwallad.

The winger was again the dangerman for the Saudi side. His 10th-minute corner kick found Brazilian forward Romarinho in plenty of space inside the Lokomotiv box, and the former Al Jazira striker converted the opener.

Lokomotiv looked to respond through Temurkhuja Abdukholikov, whose curling effort from the edge of the box went just over the crossbar three minutes after.

Al Wahda had come from behind to defeat Al Rayyan 2-1 in Doha two weeks ago and top the group with six points. So, the return fixture offered a chance for the Qataris to catch their opponents.

The visitors came racing off the blocks and were in front within 120 seconds through Sebastian Soria.

The former Qatari international striker evaded his marker inside the box and headed home from Rodrigo Tabata’s free-kick to hand Al Rayyan an early lead.

The two teams came into the match occupying the last two places in the group, with Persepolis sitting third with four points after their 2-0 win against Al Ahli on Matchday Three left the Saudis bottom of the group with three points.

The first chance of the match fell Persepolis’ way after six minutes as Iraqi international midfielder Bashar Resan dribbled down the right and drilled a shot from inside the box, but goalkeeper Mohammed Al Owais made the save low to his near post.

The two teams had played out a 2-2 draw a fortnight ago in Tashkent and a single point separated them before kick-off, as Pakhtakor topped the group with five points.

Al Sadd needed just 10 minutes to take the lead through Xavi who, just as in the previous game, curled a free-kick into the top corner of Sanjar Kuvvatov net.

With their hopes of progressing from Group F all but extinguished after their 4-0 loss to Guangzhou on Matchday Three, Kevin Muscat made eight changes to his starting 11 from their A-League game last Friday.

After losing their opening match of the campaign to Guangzhou Evergrande, the Japanese side responded well with back-to-back wins, including a 2-0 win over Daegu on Matchday Three.

Hiroshi Jofuku’s side rode their luck early, however, as the home side had the better of the early chances as Cesinha and then Edgar spurned good chances to open the lead for the Korea Republic side.