Hosts Al Sadd staged a brilliant comeback from being a goal down to beat the UAE’s Al Wasl 3-1 at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium of Al Sadd club on Monday for a place in the quarterfinals of 2024-2025 season AFC Champions League Elite.

It was a crunch second-leg Round of 16 clash and Al Sadd rose to the occasion in front of a large number of home fans in a fascinating contest to grab a last-eight berth of the tournament. It is the sixth time in history that Al Sadd have made this grade in hunt for a third continental title.

Following the 1-1 draw in the opening leg, the win took Al Sadd’s aggregate to 4-2 and with it the progress.

After Fabio Lima put the visitors ahead in the 10th minute, Al Sadd rocked back with sensational goals from Moustafa Tarek (27th minute), Youcef Atal (30th minute) and the mercurial Akram Afif produced a stunner (37th minute).

The two-time AFC Player of the Year and team captain Afif was also instrumental in providing the assist for the opening goal of his team besides leading the attack at the front.

Al Sadd began on a defensive note, but despite sandbagging they were dealt with a blow as Al Wasl broke through from the left and Alexis made a lob for an unmarked Lima to slam in their only goal.

The Wolves wasted no time in striking back as Afif worked hard making forays. It was not long before Afif dashed in from the left and broke past three defenders to make a cross for an alert Mashal to lunge in front of a defender and get his left boot to the ball to make the deflection into left corner of the net for the equalizer.

Four minutes later, another beautiful Al Sadd goal followed as Atal weaved his way in the danger zone from deep right and held on a defender to fire in from an acute angle into the left corner just inside of the left post.

The finest of Al Sadd goals of the match came next as Afif took a free-kick and Claudinho placed the ball back for the former to run in and make a superb flick as the ball sailed over spectacularly into the far top right corner.

Well in command, Al Sadd then added more pace to their charge and just before Claudinho came close to adding another goal, he shot a little too wide to the left.

In the second session, Al Wasl pushed hard and came close on a few occasion but Al Sadd goalkeeper Meshaal Barsham made some fine saves to ensure that The Wolves were well on their way in the quarterfinals of the continental championship once again.