Shoot-out drama as Seoul, Shandong reach ACL last 8
Go breaks Urawa hearts in breathless action
ensured Real have been fresher at the business end of the season than many of their rivals.
“Perhaps, that’s why although he has only been in charge for a short time, it seems like he has for 30 years.”
Zidane’s slender frame and amiable attitude still give off the vibe of a player rather than a man weighed down by the pressure of leading the richest club in the world.
“It is a game we’d all love to play... well I can’t,” he added on Tuesday with a smile that laid bare he would still feel more comfortable as a midfield maestro than sidelined observer.
Yet, despite the change from player, to assistant and now coach, the constant drive to win the Champions League remains.
Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo alleviated concerns over his fitness ahead of Saturday’s Champions League final against Atletico Madrid as the three-time World Player of the Year returned to training on Wednesday.
Ronaldo limped off towards the end of training on Tuesday after suffering a knock on a persistent left thigh problem.
SEOUL, May 25, (AFP): FC Seoul came back from the brink to win a dramatic penalty shoot-out on Wednesday as Hao Junmin’s last-minute thunderbolt also put Shandong Luneng into the AFC Champions quarter-finals.
League
In a breathless night of action, Go Yo-Han struck in the dying seconds of extra time against Urawa Red Diamonds — the fourth goal of the extra periods — to force the shootout, which Seoul won 7-6.
Urawa’s Yoshiaki Komai was the fall guy when his stuttering run-up and shot was easily saved by Yu Sang-Hun, before Seoul’s Kim Dong-Woo stroked the decisive spotkick.
The 2013 runners-up were seconds from elimination after Tadanari Lee scored twice in three minutes deep into extra time, before Go’s fierce shot in the 122nd minute for 3-2 on the night and 3-3 on aggregate.
It wasn’t the only action-packed last16 second leg as Hao’s rocket with seconds left against Sydney FC locked up the scores at 3-3 on aggregate but put China’s Shandong through on away goals.
Goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic’s late penalty save — after he also stopped a spot-kick in the first leg — seemed to have earned 10-man Sydney their first appearance in Asia’s last eight.
But with the scores at 2-1 on the night, and 3-2 on aggregate after last week’s 1-1 draw, Hao’s long-range shot swerved past Janjetovic and into the top corner, stunning the Sydney crowd.
“There’s a lot of disappointments in football and there’s a lot of happy times — this is an extremely disappointing time
Go
for the players,” an emotional Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold said afterwards.
“It took a great goal to beat us... all I can say is, these things happen in football,” he added.
Sydney got off to a dream start when Brandon O’Neill’s low free kick crept in the second minute, before Walter Montillo equalised 10 minutes later.
Sydney made a sensational start to the second period when, with less than a minute gone, Rhyan Grant blasted them 2-1 ahead from the right side of the box after being teed up by Milos Ninkovic.
Janjetovic’s penalty stop from Diego Tardelli, after Zac Anderson saw red for a foul, appeared to have put Sydney through, but their joy faded when Hao’s last-minute sizzler swerved into the top corner.
In the South Korean capital, FC Seoul started with a 1-0 deficit from last week’s first leg but they levelled the tie when Dejan Damjanovic capitalised on a defensive howler on 29 minutes.
Both sides had their chances but it wasn’t until extra time that the strikers made their mark, as Seoul’s Brazilian forward Adriano plundered his 11th goal of the campaign in the 94th minute.
It looked like it would be enough — until Urawa’s Lee struck twice in three minutes, first with his head and then with a volley, to put the Japanese visitors within touching distance of the last eight.
However, two minutes into stoppage time at the end of the second extra period, Go unleashed a left-footed shot which crept past Urawa’s Shusaku Nishikawa and forced the penalty kicks.
Shandong Luneng FC’s Walter Montillo (center), runs down the ball with Sydney FC’s Riley Woodcock (left), and Brandon O’neill during their AFC Champions
League soccer match in Sydney, Australia, on May 25. (AP)