Results in the West Zone on Monday meant that Al Rayyan had already secured their place in the knockout stage prior to the match while Esteghlal only needed to avoid defeat to join the Qatari side in the Round of 16.

Both sides traded shots in the opening minutes with Mahmoud Trezeguet seeing his attempt saved while Didier Ndong couldn’t keep his effort on target from a good position.

After that, Esteghlal's Seyed Hosseini was the busier custodian, needing to be at his best to deny Roger Guedes and Trezeguet to keep his side on level terms going into the break.

Esteghlal, however, enjoyed a dream start to the second half as they took the lead just a minute in when Alireza Kooshki chased down the ball on the left and swung in a cross that was chested into goal by Mohammadreza Azadi.

Al Rayyan thought they had drawn level in the 65th minute but Guedes’ goal was ruled out for offside and they went further behind four minutes later as Kooshki weaved his way into the box before doubling Esteghlal’s advantage and taking them into the next round.