Al Ain, champions in 2003 and 2024, marked their return to the AFC Champions League Elite with a resounding 4-0 victory over Saudi side Al Nassr on Tuesday evening at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain. The match was the first round of the unified group stage for the West Asia region.
The Moroccan brothers Hussein and Soufiane Rahimi led Al Ain to the big win. Hussein scored twice in the 25th and 63rd minutes, while Soufiane, the top scorer of the 2024 edition with 13 goals, added the third in the 72nd minute. Substitute Yorgos Yakovakis of Greece completed the rout in the 85th minute.
With this victory, Al Ain ended an eight-match winless run, which included six defeats and two draws in the 2024-2025 season. They also renewed their dominance over Al Nassr at the same stadium, having beaten them by the same scoreline on their way to the 2024 title, before Al Nassr responded a year later with a 5-1 win in Riyadh.
Al Nassr paid the price for fatal defensive errors, similar to their previous domestic match that ended in a 1-1 draw with Al Khaleej and saw them fall behind in the Saudi Pro League title race. It was clear that coach Ange Postecoglou’s team struggled severely to play out from the back.
In the 25th minute, left-back Saad Al Nasser inadvertently gifted the ball to Hussein Rahimi with a careless back pass, allowing the Moroccan to go one-on-one with goalkeeper Nawaf Al Aqidi and score with a low shot. Al Nasser nearly worsened his team’s situation after receiving a red card for a strong challenge, but VAR intervened and the referee changed the decision to a yellow card just before half-time.
At the start of the second half, Postecoglou brought on Rakan Al Ghamdi for Saad Al Nasser to avoid further disasters, but his team conceded a second goal, again through Hussein Rahimi, in a similar fashion to a disallowed goal, as he converted a cross from Paraguayan Kaku in the 63rd minute.
Nine minutes later, Soufiane Rahimi scored a third from another Kaku assist after a quick counter-attack, with large gaps in Al Nassr’s advanced defense. Yakovakis then completed the scoring from another fast break, where French defender Mohamed Simakan was the only one back against a three-man Al Ain attack.
Ronaldo and Mane Fail to Make an Impact
Al Nassr’s other substitutes, Brazilian Angelo and forward Abdullah Al Hamdan, failed to change the course of the game. The team also missed the influence of captain Cristiano Ronaldo and Senegalese star Sadio Mane, as there was no real threat from the Saudi attack. Ronaldo had a quiet game and only appeared with a powerful free-kick in the 89th minute that goalkeeper Khalid Eisa brilliantly pushed away.
Al Ain started strongly, with Paraguayan Alejandro Romero playing a ball behind the defense to Hussein Rahimi, who went one-on-one and hit the post in the second minute. Al Nassr responded in the 17th minute when Portuguese Joao Felix delivered a free-kick and Spanish defender Inigo Martinez headed it, but goalkeeper Khalid Eisa saved. In the 39th minute, Al Aqidi saved a shot from Portuguese Rafael Rodrigues after a pass from Hussein Rahimi.
In the next round, Al Nassr will play Uzbekistan’s Neftchi, while Al Ain will visit Iraq’s Al Shorta.