The home side’s contingent of foreign stars were on fire as they made it two wins in as many matches to get their 2018 AFC Champions League campaign off to the best possible start.

Oscar On Fire

Shanghai SIPG’s record-signing Oscar produced one of his best performances in a red shirt, linking up with fellow Brazilian Hulk and Wu Lei to terrorise the visitors’ defence.

Mostly operating on the left in a 4-3-3 formation, he completed a total of 57 passes at 83 percent accuracy, and also had six shots and six key passes, as highlighted by his passing graph below.

It took only nine minutes for the hosts to open the scoring after captain Al Jassem fired a low drive from the edge of the area that left the goalkeeper helpless.

Romarinho came close to leveling the score after his attempt from the edge of the box was denied by goalkeeper Yasser Al Mosaliem in the 19th minute.

Five minutes later, the Brazilian succeeded in beating the goalkeeper but his shot was cleared on the line by Australian defender Mark Milligan.

Al Ahli doubled their lead after Abdulafttah Assiri was fouled by Yaqoub Al Hosani inside the box and Al Ahli were awarded a penalty which was converted by Mohannad Aseri in the 70th minute.

A late own goal from Al Mosaileem proved too little too late for Al Jazira, Ali Mabkhout's shot from close range deflecting off the goalkeeper and ending in the back of the net.

Al Ahli travel to Doha to face Al Gharafa on Matchday Three, while Al Jazira welcome Islamic Republic of Iran’s Tractorsazi Tabriz.

 

The visitors, coming off a win against Kitchee on Matchday One, almost took an early lead at the Kashiwa Soccer Stadium when Anthony Modeste’s header from a Kwon Kyung-won long throw glanced just wide of the far post in the fourth minute.

Kashiwa Reysol’s Brazilian striker Cristiano should have opened the scoring midway through the first half when Liu Yiming caught Ataru Esaka with a high boot in the box, with the referee duly pointing to the spot. But the 31-year-old Brazilian saw his penalty well saved by Zhang Lu.

Paulo Sousa’s men were unlucky not to go into half-time with scores even after Pato, who started on the bench, saw his shot deflected by Kosuke Nakamura onto the crossbar with the last kick of the half.

After spurning his chance in the first half, Cristiano made no mistake with his next attempt, however, with a sensational volley early in the second half to fire the home side into the lead.

That looked like it would be enough for the home side to take all three points, but Pato had other ideas and fired the visitors level after Modeste’s shot was saved by Nakamura into the path of Pato who made no mistake with an open net in front of him.