He’s unbelievable. He’s physically really good and knows how to play football. I’m so sorry because this was his last game for Suwon in 2018 as he’s going to the army team (Sangju Sangmu FC). I’m happy he finished like this, in front of our fans with a big win because of his goals. I hope he will continue to do a good job at Sangju and come back to Suwon to be a key player in the future.

One of the AFC Champions League’s most experienced campaigners, Dejan Damjanovic, hails one of the competition’s young guns, Kim Gun-hee, whose brace on Wednesday helped Suwon Samsung Suwon oust Ulsan Hyundai 3-1 on aggregate.

Kuala Lumpur: A match-winning hat-trick from Esteghlal’s Mame Thiam in the 2018 AFC Champions League Round of 16, second leg against Zobahan has seen the Senegalese striker named as the Toyota Player of the Week.

Esteghlal went into Tuesday’s game against their Islamic Republic of Iran rivals a goal down from the first leg but Thiam leveled proceedings with an early penalty, before curling in a fabulous effort from distance shortly before half-time.

Midway through the second half, the forward side-footed home his third in what was ultimately the contest’s deciding goal, his seventh of the campaign. Thiam got all four of his shots on target, posting a conversion rate of 75 percent, and scored a rating of 9.2.

Thiam’s goals have taken Esteghlal to a first quarter-final appearance since 2013 as he became only the fourth player this campaign to net three or more goals in a game, after Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors duo Adriano and Kim Shin-wook and Guangzhou Evergrande’s Ricardo Goulart.

Second in this week’s ranking is another player who shone in Tehran, Ahmad Nourollahi (pictured below), whose stunning strike opened the scoring in Persepolis’s 2-1 victory over Al Jazira on Monday.

Mame Baba Thiam was the hero on the night; his treble of strikes eased Esteghlal past their Iran Pro League rivals, who could only find the back of the net once, after the damage had been done.

Prolific Thiam too hot to handle

Mame Thiam joined Esteghlal last February, penning a permanent deal with the Blues after terminating his Juventus contract with mutual consent. Until that point, he had been stuck in a perpetual cycle of short-term stints at European clubs, so Iran provided a fresh opportunity for the Senegalese forward to jump-start his career.

Last year’s semi-finalists had to reverse a 3-2 defeat from the first leg and needed 89 minutes to do so after Ahmed Nourollahi’s opener was cancelled out by Romarinho. Skipper Seyed Jalal Hosseini delivered the all-important winner to the relief of the 80,000 fans in the stands.

The two-time champions were in control for long spells of this encounter, always seeming to have more in the tank than the visitors from Thailand.

The hosts managed to level the aggregate score before halftime but were unable to keep Al Sadd's attackers at bay as a Baghdad Bounedjah brace consigned them to elimination.