Groups B and D are first up when they play their fourth games of the campaign on Monday, before Groups A and C return on action on Tuesday, after which the fate of some of the sides may have been decided.

Persepolis were calm and collected as they beat a young Al Wasl side 2-0 in Tehran, with goals from Farshad Ahmadzadeh and Ali Alipour enough to put them in second place with six points. The Emirati side were unable to threaten in the absence of their top two goal scorers Fabio de Lima and Caio Canedo.

Al Wasl attempt to nullify Persepolis with a new formation

With foreign duo Lima and Canedo missing, and Ronaldo Mendes on the bench, Rodolfo Arruabarrena had to come up with a different plan to get something against Persepolis. This involved Al Wasl using a new 5-3-2 formation.

The visitors came off the blocks racing and found the back of the net just three minutes into the game after captain Rodrigo Tabata's pass found Moutouali who fired a powerful strike from outside the box that went in off the post to put Al Rayyan in front.

Al Hilal regrouped quickly and came close to levelling the score in the ninth minute when  Achraf Bencharki's close range shot from a narrow angle was blocked by defender Ahmed Yasser.

Al Rayyan thought they had doubled their lead just before the half hour mark when Abderazak Hamdallah beat the goalkeeper, only to see his goal ruled out for offside.

The Saudi side started the second half brighter and in the 58th minute, Bencharki sent an intelligent pass into the box for overlapping left-back Al Zori who struck with venom into the top right corner to earn his side a point on the night.

The 2017 runners-up remain without a win in the group and will next travel to Doha to face Al Rayyan, who have now drawn all their three games.

Al Duhail got off to a blistering start, with Youssef El Arabi scoring twice inside the first 20 minutes after being set up by Al Moez Ali on both occasions. 

The Moroccan's first goal came via a fierce low shot following a swift passing move in the ninth minute. In the 19th minute, El Arabi doubled the hosts' lead by tapping in to an empty goal after Ali's squared pass for his fourth AFC Champions League goal of the season.

El Arabi then turned provider to captain Youssef Msakni for Al Duhail's third goal in the 25th minute. Msakni latched onto El Arabi's precise through pass and deftly chipped Ignatiy Nesterov to give his side a firm 3-0 lead going into the break.

Lokomotiv looked a different side after the restart and duly pulled a goal back in the 57th minute, with substitute Nivaldo scoring with his first touch just moments after coming on. Two minutes later, Marat Bikmaev made it 3-2 after a lobbed finish over Al Duhail keeper Amine Lecomte. 

However, despite pushing hard for an equaliser, Lokomotiv were unable to complete what would have been an impressive comeback. 

Al Duhail held on firm to maintain their 100 percent record and stay top of Group B while Lokomotiv are in third place with three points. The Uzbek side will now look to take revenge when they host Al Duhail in Tashkent on Matchday Four.