Al-Ain thrash 10-man Marinos to win Asian Champions League
Al-Ain defeated 10-man Yokohama F Marinos 5-1 in the second leg of the Asian Champions League final on Saturday, with a rampant Soufiane Rahimi leading his team to a 6-3 aggregate victory and their first continental title in 21 years.
The Moroccan helped the United Arab Emirates club win the trophy for the first time since the inaugural edition in 2003, scoring twice at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium and playing an important role in the final.
Al-Ain were trailing 2-1 after the first leg in Yokohama two weeks ago, but they were level on aggregate in the eighth minute when Rahimi slotted into the bottom corner after racing onto Yahia Nader's clever back flick of the striker's own through ball.
Rahimi's goal was a foreshadowing of what was to come as he tormented the Yokohama defence, drawing a foul from Shinnosuke Hatanaka on the half hour mark that led to Al-Ain's second, which was awarded as a penalty following a VAR review.
In the 33rd minute, midfielder Kaku stepped up to score as Marinos keeper William Popp made the correct guess but was unable to prevent the ball from finding the target.
However, with five minutes remaining in the half, the Harry Kewell-coached Japanese side levelled the aggregate score, with Yan Matheus punishing Kouame Kouadio for his error with a low, left-foot shot past Khalid Eisa.
But there was more drama deep into injury time in an already eventful first half that swung the game in Al-Ain's favour.
With 10 minutes added on, Rahimi was released behind the Marinos defence, and as he bore down on goal, Popp upended the livewire forward outside the area, forcing referee Ilgiz Tantashev to show the custodian a red card.
The sending off forced Marinos to play more defensively in the second half, and Hatanaka hit his own crossbar under pressure from Rahimi.
In the 67th minute, the forward punished substitute goalkeeper Fuma Shirasaka by beating him at his near post with a left-foot strike that put Al-Ain in command of the match and gave Rahimi his 13th goal of the season.
With a one-goal lead and a man advantage, Hernan Crespo's side went for the kill in the time remaining, with Kodjo Laba putting the finishing touches on Marinos' defeat.
The Togo international took advantage of Shirasaka's terrible mistake in the first minute of injury time to slot into an empty net, and four minutes later, he directed the ball in from close range to end the Japanese team's misery.
SportsLigue