ASEAN Club Championship Shopee Cup™ semi-finalists Buriram United FC and Johor Darul Ta’zim FC both exited the AFC Champions League Elite at the quarter-final stage with defeats against Shabab Al Ahli FC and Al Ahli Saudi FC respectively.
JDT suffered a 2-1 loss in front of the defending champions’ fans in Jeddah’s King Abdullah Sports City Stadium despite taking an early lead and playing against 10 men for much of the match.
“We didn’t control the important moments,” said JDT coach Xisco Muñoz after seeing his side go out of the competition. “We need to mature a little and not concede before half-time.
“If we had maintained the score until the break, everything could change. But because we lost an important player like Jairo, we lost a bit of power in the last third."
Al Ahli’s Ali Majrashi had given the Malaysia Super League side the lead in the 19th minute when he steered Jairo’s low centre from the right into his own goal.
Matters worsened for the Al Ahli defender when he was sent off eight minutes before the interval for knocking Jairo out with a kick to the head as he attempted to thump the ball clear. The Brazilian was taken to hospital as a precaution.
But the sending off galvanised Al Ahli, who equalised three minutes into first-half stoppage time with a towering header from Franck Kessié.
Galeno hit the all-important second goal seven minutes after the restart when he skipped past Natxo Insa to fire an unstoppable strike past Andoni Zubiaurre from distance. It was JDT’s first ever appearance in the quarter-final stage in the continental club competition.
It was a similar story for Shopee Cup™ reigning champions Buriram United, who lost 3-2 in extra-time to Shabab Al Ahli from the United Arab Emirates.
The Thai League 1 leaders went two goals down to Paulo Sousa’s team before rallying in the second half to pull level and take the game into extra-time, where Renan Victor’s 93rd minute goal gave Shabab Al Ahli the win.
“Extremely disappointing,” said head coach Mark Jackson. “We were under pressure after going 2-0 down but the players showed character and desire to come back. It’s fine margins but I’m very proud of the players and the manner in which they fought back in the game.
“We grew into the game, particularly after going 2-0 down, the desire was excellent. We stuck to the plan and we felt the opponents were tiring and the match was within our grasp. So to concede so early in extra-time was disappointing.”
An own goal by Peter Žulj in the 14th minute at a corner gave Shabab Al Ahli the lead and Iran international Saeid Ezatolahi doubled the advantage with a diving header four minutes into the second half.
Guilherme Bissoli’s 65th minute penalty halved the deficit for Buriram United and Žulj’s clinical finish six minutes later took the game into extra-time as the Thai club sought a berth in the semi-finals for the first time.
Those hopes, however, were extinguished by Victor, who capitalised on a defensive mix-up to score from close range and send Buriram United out of the competition in the quarter-finals for the second year in a row, having also been knocked out from the last eight stage in 2013.
Buriram United and JDT will face off against one another in the semi-finals of the Shopee Cup™ over two legs next month. JDT will host the first leg on May 6 with the return in Buriram United a week later. The other semi-final tie sees Selangor FC facing Nam Ðịnh FC, with the final scheduled on May 20 and 27.
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