VB Addu 3-6 Al Ettifaq

Tagliabue scored his treble in the first 37 minutes at the National Stadium in Male to put the visitors in control. Abu Mansaray pulled a goal back for the home side but Hamad Al Hamad restored Al Ettifaq's three-goal cushion before half-time.

Ahmad Saad Abdullah added another for the visitors early in the second half and although Shamveel Qasim and Mohamed Hussain struck for VB late on, Zamil Al Sumlim sealed the win with Al Ettifaq's sixth goal in stoppage time.

Tagliabue had netted a hat-trick in the 5-1 victory at Kuwait SC in Al Ettifaq's opening group match but drew a blank in the goalless draw with Al Ahed two weeks ago.

But the Argentine striker was on fire once again in Male as he chipped home in the sixth minute, fired in a close range shot after 12 minutes and they headed in a corner six minutes before half-time.

While pleased with the win, Al Ettifaq coach Branko Ivankovic was unhappy with his team's loss of focus in the second half which allowed VB to cut the deficit.

"I am satisfied with the result and the performance of my boys. But they need to learn that they need to maintain concentration for the full 90 minutes of the game. If we let them settle down and dominate, it would be difficult to bring back the concentration as we would be under pressure," said the Croatian.

"Tonight we learned that. We just switched off our concentration and they scored two goals and we had to fight back stronger."

VB coach Bahtiyar Can Vanli praised the effort of his players who refused to give up despite the sizeable deficit.

"Our players gave everything they could give to the game but I felt that we could have reduced the deficit," said the Turkish tactician.

"We conceded two early goals and it did not help us that well. They are a very strong side and they controlled the game."