Al Ain of the Emirates, the defending champion of the AFC Champions League, began its participation in the new edition of the “Elite” tournament with a draw with Al Sadd of Qatar.

Al Ain hosted Al Sadd, on Monday evening, at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium in the first round of the Al Gharb region in the AFC Elite Champions League.

The result of the match between Al Ain and Al Sadd in the 2025 AFC Champions League

Matías Palacios scored a late goal to save defending champions Al Ain from a 1-1 draw against its guest Al Sadd.

Akram Afif opened the scoring in stoppage time for the first half from close range, for Al Sadd.

Al-Sadd emerged superior from a first half that began as a one-on-one duel between Afif and Sufyan Rahimi, who was Al Ain’s most dangerous player in the first half, and almost opened the scoring in the 11th minute when he was alone with the goalkeeper before firing a low shot that bounced off the crossbar.

Rahimi fired a low shot from the edge of the penalty area, but it was blocked by goalkeeper Mishal Barshim in the 21st minute, one minute after a powerful shot from Al Sadd player Mohamed Kamara from outside the penalty area was blocked by goalkeeper Khaled Issa.

As time passed, Al Sadd's threat increased through Afif, who fired two shots in the last quarter of an hour of the first half, but Issa was waiting for them.

Matías Palacios

In stoppage time, Afif succeeded in scoring after the defense failed to deal with a long ball from the Al Sadd goalkeeper and he tried to play a low cross from inside the area, but it bounced off one of the defenders and returned to him to put it into the net.

In an attempt to remedy the situation, Al Ain coach Hernan Crespo brought on player Laba Kodjo at the beginning of the second half, amid great applause from the fans.

But Laba did not leave a clear mark, and the most dangerous opportunity he had was in the 56th minute when he shot a ball that hit the net from the outside.

Ten minutes later, Al Sadd player Rafael Mujica almost doubled his team's lead with a dangerous opportunity from close range, but his attempt went over the crossbar.

But the last word went to Palacios, who equalized in the 80th minute with a powerful shot from outside the penalty area.

The Iraqi Police snatched a draw from its guest, Al-Nassr Saudi Arabia, with a score of 1-1 in the first round of the AFC Champions League for the Elite.

Al-Nasr opened the scoring at Al-Madina International Stadium in Baghdad in the 14th minute after a wonderful pass received by Sultan Al-Ghannam inside the penalty area, and the latter shot into the net to the right of the police goalkeeper.

Ten minutes later, Al-Shorta equalized through its player, Mohamed Dawoud Yassin, who received the ball inside the penalty area following a long pass that two Al-Nasr defenders failed to handle, and he shot into the net.