Meanwhile, Al Duhail suffered their first defeat of the season in a 1-0 loss to Al Rayyan, who reduced the deficit with the Qatar Stars League leaders to only two points.

Kuwait league leaders Al Qadsia were also held to a draw, while the pacesetters in Oman, Syria and Palestine remained unchanged. The-AFC.com reviews the latest domestic action in West Asia.

The club from Saudi Arabia advanced from the play-offs with a 1-0 win over Tajikistan's Istiklol FC on Tuesday, with Youcef Belaïli converting a penalty in stoppage time to take Al Ahli into the group stage for the sixth consecutive year.

The Islamic Republic of Iran club prevailed 5-4 on penalties against Qatar’s Al Sailiya FC after 120 minutes saw the play-off tie end in a 0-0 draw at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium.

Goalkeeper Mahdi Rahmati was the hero for Shahr Khodro, producing a brilliant shootout save to deny countryman Karim Ansarifard before Saeid Sadeghi struck the decisive blow to take his team through.

The former Islamic Republic of Iran national team forward saw Esteghlal score five goals against their hosts at Jassim bin Hamad Stadium to book their place in the group stage of the competition for the fourth consecutive year.

Despite Saeed Juma’s second-half strike ultimately deciding the tie, Al Ain dominated against the Uzbekistan club at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium.

Having weathered a Kashima storm in the first half, Melbourne netted the tie's only goal on 54 minutes when Nabbout was on hand to fire home a deflected effort past Kwoun Sun-tae.

Custodian Lawrence Thomas then put on a goalkeeping clinic to deny the 2018 champions as the A-League side held out for a famous victory.

The 31-year-old spoke exclusively to the-AFC.com following the play-off tie at Seoul World Cup Stadium and he reflected on the match, the importance of playing in the AFC Champions League, his favourite memories from the competition so far, and his hopes for 2020.