Qatar football giants Al Sadd secured their first win in the AFC Champions League Elite 2024-25 on Monday as an own goal from Hossein Hosseini and a second-half penalty from Akram Afif earned Felix Sanchez’s side a 2-0 victory over Esteghlal at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha.
The win takes the Qatari side onto four points from their first two games in the league phase while Islamic Republic of Iran’s Esteghlal remain on three points following their opening round victory over Al Gharafa earlier in the month.
Also on Monday, Saudi giants Al Nassr secured a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Qatar’s Al Rayyan in their AFC Champions League match in Riyadh last night.
Sadio Mane opened the scoring for Al Nassr (45 +1) before football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo doubled their lead in the 76th minute.
Al Rayyan’s Roger Guedes pulled one back in the 87th minute, but Al Nassr held on to claim the three points.
The win strengthens Al Nassr’s position in the competition and boosts their chances of advancing to the knockout stages.
Al Sadd coach Sanchez said on Monday: “I am happy to see my team win a difficult match and I congratulate the players on their performance. We will work harder during the upcoming matches to win more points.”
Afif said on Monday: “I want to congratulate Al Sadd fans for the victory. We will try to do well in all the matches and our best is yet to come, God willing.
We must focus on our next League match but my focus first will be on Qatar’s World Cup qualifying game against Kyrgyzstan (at Al Thumama Stadium on October 10)”.
Hosseini punched the ball into his own goal with five minutes remaining in the first half and Afif netted from the penalty spot in the 68th minute after being hauled down by Rouzbeh Cheshmi to put the seal on a comfortable win for the hosts. Soon after Ramin Rezaeian was steering a header of his own wide of the home goal while Meshaal Barsham had to be at his sharpest to push Gustavo Blanco’s headed effort to safety, throwing himself to his right to deny the Argentinian forward. With five minutes to go to the interval Hosseini quickly turned from hero to villain for the visitors, gifting Al Sadd the lead moments after denying the Qataris with a fine save when he pushed away Rafa Mujica’s effort for a corner. Afif bent his set-piece towards the edge of the six-yard box and, under pressure from Roman Saiss, Hosseini’s mistimed punch sliced off his fist and into the Esteghlal goal.
Barsham then ensured Al Sadd took that lead into the interval with a diving save deep into injury time, the AFC Asian Cup winner palming Iman Salimi’s header to safety at another corner.
Al Sadd started the second half in search of a second, Paulo Otavio shooting straight at Hosseini while the goalkeeper went some way to redeeming himself soon after when he smothered the ball at Mujica’s feet as the Spaniard raced in on goal.
But Esteghlal resistance came to an end when Cheshmi cut Afif down in the area to concede a clear-cut spot-kick and the Qatar international stepped up to double the lead with ease.
Al Sadd will welcome Persepolis of Iran for their third encounter on October 21 while Esteghlal will host Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr the following day.

Saudi side Al Ahli beat Al Wasl
Saudi Arabia’s Al Ahli FC continued to shine as they secured a 2-0 win over Al Wasl Club of the UAE in their AFC Champions League Elite match in Dubai on Monday.
First half strikes from Riyad Mahrez and Roger Ibanez sealed an impressive away win for Al Ahli, who have maximum points from their opening two matches while Al Wasl stayed on three.
Al Wasl produced the first attempt of the game when Nicolas Gimenez twisted and turned at the edge of the box to get away from his marker but fired his curling low shot just wide of the post.
The response from Al Ahli was swift and efficient as they went ahead in the third minute when Roger Ibanez’s long ball forward was expertly brought down by Riyad Mahrez before calmly slotting past Khaled Al Senani.
Al Wasl could have drawn level in the 20th minute if not for the intervention of Ivan Toney, who raced back to his goal line to head out Fabio Lima’s inswinging corner that looked to be going straight in.