Al Hilal were denied the chance to move to the top of the standings in Group C of the AFC Champions League on Tuesday as Farez Juma's late equaliser earned Al Jazira a 1-1 draw at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium. Juma's header in the final seconds of the game cancelled out Ailton's ninth minute opener to ensure the teams shared the points and Iran's Tractorsazi Tabriz top the standings at the end of Matchday Three. Al Ittihad's struggles in the 2016 AFC Champions League continued on Tuesday as the two-time champions slumped to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of a Nilmar-inspired Al Nasr from the United Arab Emirates. The Brazilian forward struck twice as the club from Dubai moved to the top of the Group A standings, one point clear of Uzbekistan's Lokomotiv, while Al Ittihad are rooted to the bottom and remain winless with just two points from their opening three games. Nilmar gave the visitors the perfect start after less than a minute before Gelmin Rivas levelled the scores 12 minutes later only for Nilmar to score the winner with 16 minutes remaining. Al Nasr could not have hoped for a better start to proceedings when, soon after kick off, Amir Mubarak was gifted possession midway into his own half and his perfectly measured ball forward left Nilmar in a foot race with Ahmed Asiri. Earlier, Melbourne Victory's chances of reaching the knockout stage of the Asian Champions League for the first time were damaged after being held to a 0-0 draw by Suwon Bluewings. The Australian club has been eliminated from the group stage on all four previous attempts. "Would I have liked a couple more points?" Melbourne coach Kevin Muscat said. "Without doubt, but I'm not going to knock the effort that that group gave tonight." Victory could not find a way through the massed South Korean defense in the final stages of a combative match in Group G. Goal chances were at a premium with Kwak Hee-Ju doing a superb job man-marking leading Victory scorer Besart Berisha and preventing him from having a shot at goal in the 90 minutes. "They are a very difficult team to break down, they're so disciplined," Muscat said. "When you're that disciplined and you've got a work ethic like Suwon have then they are difficult to break down but we did create some decent chances, particularly in the first half." Victory veteran Archie Thompson had the ball in the back of the net in the 53rd minute after heading home from a corner, but was ruled offside. Singapore referee Muhammad Taqi brandished the yellow card six times in a physical contest but let the game flow. Melbourne has five points from three games in Group G but, at the halfway stage, is second after Shanghai SIPG defeated Gamba Osaka 2-1. Both goals for Shanghai, led by former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, came from Brazilian striker Elkeson. Jeonbuk Motors moved to the top of Group E after a 2-0 win over Vietnamese club Binh Duong. Ricardo Lopes put the South Koreans ahead at the end of the first half and Lee Dong-gook added his record 30th goal in the competition at the end of the second. Also, Big spending Jiangsu Suning was held to a 0-0 draw at FC Tokyo. In the evening matches Pakhtakor Tashkent of Uzbekistan edged Tractor Sazi Tabriz of Iran 1-0 while Lokomotiv Tashkent of Uzbekistan downed another Iranian outfit Sepahan 2-0. The top two teams from each of the eight groups will advance to the second round.
