Qatari team breach boycott in Asian Champions League
Cannavaro, Oscar spearhead Chinese CL assault
DOHA, Qatar, Feb 12, (Agencies): An eightmonth boycott of Qatar by regional neighbors was breached on Monday when the Doha-based Al Gharafa club lost 3-2 at the Abu Dhabi home of Al Jazira on the first day of the Asian Champions League.
Since June, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt have severed all ties — including travel — with Qatar after accusing the country of supporting terrorism.
However, the Asian Football Confederation, which operates the 32-team tournament, said games had to be played on a home-and-away basis.
Al Gharafa fell behind after 10 minutes on Monday after a goal by Brazilian Romarinho.
Iran’s Mehdi Taremi equalized before Ali Mabkhout and Ahmed Mohamed put Al Jazira 3-1 up. Former Dutch international Wesley Sneijder scored Al Gharafa’s second with 18 minutes remaining .
There was better news for Qatari teams elsewhere as Al Duhail defeated Zob Ahan of Iran 3-1, while Al Ahli of Saudi Arabia beat Iran’s Tractor Sazi 1-0.
In Monday’s other game, Uzbekistan’s Lokomotiv Tashkent thrashed Al Wahda of the UAE 5-0.
The teams are divided into eight groups of four. The East Asian half of the competition kicks off on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Guangzhou Evergrande coach Fabio Cannavaro and Shanghai SIPG’s record signing Oscar will spearhead a four-pronged Chinese assault when the 2018 AFC Champions League group phase begins this week.
Evergrande, Asian champions in 2013 and 2015, have Cannavaro back at the helm for the second time and open their campaign at home to Thailand’s Buriram United on Wednesday in Group G.
Oscar, a 60-million-euro signing a year ago, is looking for a first trophy with SIPG after they crashed out in the semi-finals last season under Andre Villas-Boas, having beaten Evergrande in the quarter-finals.
Villas-Boas has been replaced at SIPG by fellow Portuguese Vitor Pereira who has vowed to win a trophy and gets the first test of his management away to Japan’s Kawasaki Frontale, who reached the quarterfinals last season, on Tuesday.
“The opening match is particularly important if we want to qualify for the knockout stage, so we have to prepare well,” said Kawasaki’s Yu Kobayashi, who netted six goals in the competition last season.
“Shanghai have Oscar and Hulk, who are experienced, high-quality players.”
Joining them in Group F are South Korea’s Ulsan who open with a long journey south to Melbourne Victory in Australia.
Cannavaro resigned at Tianjin Quanjian just days after steering them into the Champions League for the first time.
Tianjin have a new Portuguese coach in Paulo Sousa who is already beginning to like what he is seeing from Cannavaro’s high-profile French recruit Anthony Modeste, who scored both goals to beat Ceres Negros of the Philippines 2-0 in a playoff to reach the group phase.