Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Ulsan:Unbeaten Ulsan Hyundai became the fourth K-League side in succession to qualify for the AFC Champions League final as second half goals from Kim Shin-wook and Lee Keun-ho settled Wednesday's semi-final second leg to seal a 5-1 aggregate victory over Uzbekistan's Bunyodkor.
Bunyodkor needed to score at least three goals at Ulsan Munsu Stadium having lost last week's first leg 3-1 at home and the visitors dominated the first half with recalled striker Shavkat Salomov coming the closest for the visitors only to find goalkeeper Kim Young-kwang in outstanding form.
And after Kim Shin-wook took advantage of a defensive mistake from Hayrulla Karimov to net his sixth goal of the campaign at the start of the second half, Lee Keun-ho's spectacular strike with 16 minutes remaining sealed Ulsan's home advantage in the November 10 final after Kim Ho-gon's side extended their unbeaten record in the competition with an eighth consecutive win.
Facing an uphill task after conceding an early advantage in Tashkent last week, Bunyodkor were only denied a valuable early goal as Ulsan goalkeeper Kim Young-kwang was first sent flying across his goal to expertly push away Salomov's seventh minute half volley from the edge of the area before the custodian kept out the recalled striker's close range strike 11 minutes later.
Lee Yong then blocked Jasur Khasanov's drilled strike from inside the area from Viktor Karpenko's pull back before Ulsan's Lee Ho then fired across the face of goal as the home side created their first real chance midway through the first half.
And despite sitting back for the majority of the opening 45 minutes, Ulsan finished the half strongly and were only denied a breakthrough three minutes before the break as Bunyodkor goalkeeper Ignatiy Nesterov pushed away Juan Estiven Velez's vicious angled strike from a clever headed through pass by Rafinha (Rafael dos Santos de Oliveira).
Jovlon Ibrokhimov wasted a good chance for Bunyodkor at the start of the second half after weakly firing at KimYoung-kwang from Karpenko's exquisite through ball.
And Bunyodkor were made to pay seven minutes before the hour mark as Karimov could only divert Rafinha's low cross into the path of Kim Shin-wook on the edge of the six-yard area and the striker made no mistake with an empathic finish that gave Nesterov no chance.
Still needing to score three goals to keep their chances alive, Ibrokhimov sent a rising strike just over the crossbar three minutes later as Bunyodkor looked for an instant response.
But with 16 minutes remaining the home side finally put the tie beyond any doubt as Rafinha cleverly sent Lee Keun-ho into space behind the Bunyodkor defence and the Korea Republic striker unleashed a spectacular first time strike which flew into the top corner from the right side of the penalty area.
And the impressive KimYoung-kwang preserved his clean sheet as the Ulsan goalkeeper produced another spectacular save to push away Bahodir Pardaev's equally eye-catching overhead kick in the last minute as the visitors were denied the consolation their efforts deserved.