Hilal and Al-Ittihad scored convincing 3-1 and 3-0 wins over UAE rivals Al-Jazira and Al-Wehdah respectively, but Al-Nasr, the third Saudi club in action, lost its Asian Champions League match against Al-Sadd of Qatar Tuesday. Egyptian striker Ahmed Ali put Hilal in front three minutes into their Group A game at King Fahd International Stadium before his teammate Yasser Al-Qahtani made it 2-0 in the 14th minute. Jazira striker Ahmed Juma'a pulled one back five minutes later, only to see midfielder Mohammed Al-Shalhoub seal victory for Hilal in the dying minutes of the match. Hilal is second in the group with six points behind Sepahan of Iran, which has nine points. Jazira, on the other hand, is last with a single point to its name. Ittihad blanked Wehdah 3-0 in their Group C encounter. Ittihad's Algerian striker Abdul-Malik Ziaya put the team in the lead after 32 minutes before midfielder Manaf Abu-Shugair made it 2-0 a minute before the break. Portuguese midfielder Paulo Jorge sealed the win for the Tigers four minutes before time. Ittihad is on top of the group with nine points. Nasr, meanwhile lost its third encounter in the competition to hand Sadd the group lead on seven points. Nasr is second with four points. The host team's South Korean defender, Lee Jung-soo gave Sadd the winning goal in the 60th minute when he jumped high to head a corner kick into the far top corner of Nasr keeper Abdullah Al-Enezi. Retiring hardman Kevin Muscat scored a precious second-half equalizer to keep Melbourne Victory's AFC Champions League hopes alive, as Cerezo Osaka downed former champion Jeonbuk Motors. Muscat's glancing header on 52 minutes earned Victory a fighting 1-1 away draw with China's Tianjin Teda, in their first game under caretaker coach Mehmet Durakovic after Ernie Merrick's sacking last month. Defender Muscat, 37, is enjoying a last hurrah in the Asian competition after announcing his retirement in February, when an eight-match ban for a trademark dangerous tackle brought his domestic season to an early end. The draw gave Victory its first point of the campaign, although it remains rooted to the foot of Group E. Tianjin, which remains top with seven points, opened the scoring through Marko Zoric on 20 minutes, but finished with 10 men after the captain was sent off for a challenge on Victory's Carlos Hernandez. South Korea's Jeju United climbed to second in the group after it came from behind to beat Japan's Gamba Osaka 2-1 in a victory sealed by Ki Jong Bae on 64 minutes. Meanwhile in Group G, Cerezo sent Korean side Jeonbuk's unbeaten record crashing, and a last-gasp penalty earned Arema Indonesia a surprise first point against Shandong Luneng. Takashi Inui's 53rd-minute strike was enough for Cerezo's 1-0 win in Osaka, bringing them level on points with the table-topping 2006 champion with six apiece. The game was tinged with emotion after a moment's silence for victims of Japan's earthquake and tsunami disaster, which has forced the suspension of the J-League, and Cerezo struggled for cohesion early on. But on 53 minutes Brazilian midfielder Rodrigo Pimpao's sublime pass picked out Inui, who dribbled past a defender and drilled his shot from 15 yards. Cerezo coach Levir Culpi said the result had opened up the group after the first three games. Meanwhile, Mochamad Fakhrudin converted a late penalty to hand Arema a 1-1 draw with China's Shandong Luneng in Malang, boosting their hopes after two earlier defeats. Brazilian striker Obina opened the scoring early at Kanjuruhan Stadium, and Shandong looked to have secured three away points until the Indonesian champions came storming back in the closing stages. In late matches, Iran's Sepahan kept its slate clean with 2-0 win over Qatar's Al-Gharafa; and Uzbekistan's FC Bunyodkor played out a 0-0 draw against Piroozi of Iran.
