Riyadh: Jhon Duran scored twice, and Cristiano Ronaldo made a penalty while Al Nassr won a 3-0 victory against Esteghlal, sealing their place in the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League Elite on Monday.
Ronaldo, Al Nassr’s captain, was said to have been rested for the draw last week in the first leg in Iran, but he returned to lead the team to Al Awwal Park.
He marked the place halfway through the first half.
Al Nassr, one of the three Saudi teams to dominate the group phase in the West region, only needed nine minutes to take the lead in Riyadh.
Duran, a winter signature of the English team from Premier League Aston Villa, picked up a loose ball on the right edge of the Esteghlal penalty surface and launched a superb chip on the Hossein Hosseini goalkeeper.
He scored the first goal of the attacker in the competition.
Al Nassr has doubled their advantage over 27 minutes after Sadio Mané, a winner of the UEFA Champions League with Liverpool, pulled a foul from the Rival midfielder Zobeir Niknafs inside the Esteghlal box.
Ronaldo caressed the spot with casualness in the center of the net to count in the elite of the Champions League of this year at seven goals in six appearances.
The Portuguese star is the top scorer of the Saudi Pro League this season, with 18 goals.
Esteghlal’s night was even worse just before half-time when they were reduced to 10 men after Mehran Ahmadi inadvertently caught the defender of Al Nassr Mohammed Al Fatil with an arm wandering in the face while trying to protect the ball.
Var improved the fault in a yellow card and, with Ahmadi having been reserved earlier, it was quickly sent.
Al Nassr has almost added a third at the start of the second half. First, Duran had a saved effort, only so that Ayman Yahya’s rebound was authorized to get rid of.
A few minutes later, Duran struck the Esteghlal transverse bar with a distance shot.
Al Nassr’s striker would not refuse his second, dragging a low blow inside the nearby post after being launched by the former Chelsea Angelo winger.
In the other match on Monday, the two Asian champions, Al Sadd, reserved their place in the last eight with a global 4-2 victory against the champions of the Al Wasl water.
Visitors, held in a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Dubai a week earlier, took an early advance by Fabio Lima.
However, Al Sadd responded with three goals in 10 minutes just before half an hour, with Mostafa Meshaal, Youcef Atal and Akram Afif finding the net. AFIF is the prevailing Asian player of the year.
