AFC Champions League Elite
The Englishman cancelled out Raphael Silva’s 42nd minute opener for Esteghlal before equalising again four minutes from time after Mohammad Hossein Eslami had restored the lead for the club from Tehran in the 52nd minute.
Eslami was sent off in the 81st minute for a foul on Saad Yaslam and Esteghlal had to survive a frantic finish that also saw Feras Al Brikan’s injury time strike for the home side ruled out for offside following a VAR review.
Al Ahli went into the game having already confirmed their progress to the last 16 and the draw takes Matthias Jaissle’s side onto 16 points from six games while Esteghlal move on to five points with two matches remaining.
Toney and Sumayhan Al Nabat were both denied early efforts to open the scoring for the home side while Gustavo Blanco Leschuk saw his header from the edge of the six yard box blocked at the other end.
Jaloliddin Masharipov skied his shot high over the Al Ahli crossbar in the 29th minute, squandering an opening created after Ramin Rezaeian stormed down the right before finding the Uzbekistan international on the edge of the penalty area.
With three minutes remaining in the half the visitors took the lead. Masharipov floated his free-kick into the Al Ahli penalty area and, after Mohammad Hossein Moradmand laid the ball across the face of goal, Silva drove a right-foot volley past Edouard Mendy.
Riyad Mahrez almost pulled Al Ahli level three minutes into injury time, the former Manchester City winger latching onto Toney’s touch into the area only to side-foot his effort from eight yard out against the crossbar.
Didier Ndong’s rash challenge with seconds remaining of first half injury time on Fahad Al Rashidi prompted referee Ma Ning to point to the penalty spot and Toney stroked home after Seyed Hosseini had committed to diving to his left.
Mendy then did just enough to keep out Eslami as the Esteghlal winger raced in on goal but the 23-year-old had the beating of the former Chelsea goalkeeper moments later when his volley from distance bounced over the Senegalese’s attempts to save.
Mahrez turned the Esteghlal defence before forcing a fine save out of Hosseini and the goalkeeper was on hand again to keep out Al Nabit’s header after he was found in space by Yaslam’s in-swinging cross from the left.
Eslami was dismissed with nine minutes remaining for a dangerous challenge on Yaslam and seconds later Ma pointed to the spot again following Hosseini’s poor attempt to punch the ball, which resulted in the goalkeeper clipping Toney.
The former Brentford striker converted coolly again but, despite a chaotic finish, Al Ahli were unable to find a late winner.
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