Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Ulsan: A solitary first half strike from Brazilian striker Rafinha proved the difference as Korea Republic’s Ulsan Hyundai edged out Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal 1-0 in Wednesday’s AFC Champions League quarter-final first leg at Munsu Stadium.
Rafinha, who scored two goals in six games for Gamba Osaka during the Group Stage, saw his deflected strike find the net after just 10 minutes of the first leg to hand last season’s K-League Cup winners a slender advantage ahead of the return fixture in Riyadh at the start of October.
The win means Ulsan have extended their unbeaten record in the AFC Champions League this season to eight games.
Al Hilal were forced onto the back foot for the majority of the contest as the two-time continental champions suffered their first defeat in the competition this season with Korean striker Yoo Byung-soo twice coming close to a breakthrough for the visitors.
Looking to preserve Korean interest in the competition with the K-League providing two of the last three winners of the AFC Champions League along with last year’s beaten finalist, Ulsan were presented with a glorious opportunity to open the scoring after just eight minutes.
New signing Rafinha found space outside the Al Hilal penalty area following a strong run, but after Lee Keun-ho was played into space on the left, goalkeeper Abdullah Al Sdairy easily dealt with a weak shot from the Korea Republic international.
But just two minutes later Al Sdairy was helpless to stop the home side opening the scoring as the two players again combined; this time Lee found Rafinha in space again on the left side of the penalty area, and the Brazilian’s angled shot took a telling deflection to wrong-foot the Al Hilal goalkeeper.
Despite being forced onto the back foot for the majority of the opening half an hour, the visitors came close to an equaliser 14 minutes before half-time as Ulsan goalkeeper Kim Young-kwang was forced to push away a flicked near post header from Al Hilal’s Korean striker Yoo.
Kim was again called into action six minutes after half-time as Al Hilal’s Brazilian striker Wesley tried his luck from range, with the Ulsan goalkeeper gathering the low skidding strike at the second attempt.
Kim was then sent flying across his goal to acrobatically push away a viscous long range strike from Mohammed Saleh Al Nakhli before Yoo headed narrowly wide from the resulting corner as the visitors stepped up their search for an equaliser.
Al Hilal introduced former AFC Player of the Year Yasser Al Qahtani with just over 10 minutes remaining, but the visitors were restricted to long range efforts until Kim bravely blocked at the feet of Abdulaziz AlDawsari in stoppage time.
Photo: WSG