Ittihad shared two goals with Bunyodkor of Uzbekistan in a Group B match of the AFC Champions League 2010 at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium here Wednesday. The draw delayed Ittihad qualification to the next stage until the matches of the sixth round are played. The Tigers should roar in Iran or wait for Al-Wehdah of UAE to make a miracle by scotching the dreams of Bunyodkor. Meanwhile, at Azadi Stadium in Iran Al-Ahli's hopes to qualify faded after it lost to Esteghlal of Iran 1-2 . Muhdi Sayed Salehi put the host in the lead 25 minutes after the kickoff. Victor Simoes leveled the score for Ahli from the spot in the 36th minute. However, Amir Hasan Sadeghi sealed Esteghlal win a minute before the break. Esteghlal now tops the group with 11 points while Ahli remains on six points. Skipper Mohammed Noor put Ittihad in the lead when he scored from the spot ten minutes before the break. Bunyodkor midfielder Anvarjon Soliev eqalized in the 63rd minute. Both teams put up a good performance, especially Ittihad whose players threatened the opponent's goal several times. On the other hand, the physical strength of the guest helped them protect their goal. Ittihad is still second in the group with eight points; two points behind group leader Zobahan of Iran. It is also one point ahead of Bunyodkor. However, Ittihad has not yet lost hope to move to the next round. The team needs to defeat Iranian Zobahan on April 28 at Zobahan Stadium. Another chance is Al-Wehdah of the UAE (three points) beating Bunyodkor at Jar Stadium in Tashkent. The match witnessed an attempt from some Uzbek team's officials to attack the Japanese referee after the match. A security man tried to protect the referee but an angry Uzbek official tried to kick referee in the leg. However, the situation was brought under control soon afterwards. Bunyodkor coach, Scolari refused to attend the press conference held after the match. On the other hand, Ittihad coach said that his team did well, but the referee was not up to the mark as he gave the guest team a goal from a “clear” offside position. Elsewhere, Chinese Super League champion Beijing Guoan and Japan's Kawasaki Frontale kept alive their hopes of reaching the knockout round. Beijing dashed Melbourne Victory's ambitions by holding it to a goalless draw, while Kawasaki whipped group leader Seongnam Ilhwa 3-0. Seongnam has already qualified for the next round. With one more game each remaining in the group stage, Beijing has seven points, Kawasaki has six points ahead of Melbourne on four points in Group E. Beijing and Kawasaki will face each other in the final group round game on April 28 to decide who progresses. The Chinese champion looked clearly the better outfit against the Australian A-League champion, with 17 shots on goal to Victory's six and dominating the corners 10-2. Beijing's Australian attacker Joel Griffiths was always dangerous and had a header go narrowly wide in the 62nd minute with Melbourne goalkeeper Mitchell Langerak rooted to the spot. Meanwhile in Kawasaki, Brazilian Renatinho collected a rebound and sent a cross for Hiroyuki Taniguchi's opener in the third minute, before Yusuke Tasaka made it 2-0 in the 21st minute. Renatinho added one more in the 68th minute on a penalty. J-League champion Kashima Antlers and K-League champion Jeonbuk Motors, who have already secured their places in the knock-out round, notched up another win each before their final encounter for top place in Group F. Japan international striker Shinzo Koroki beat a defender and won a one-on-one encounter against Changchun Yatai goalkeeper An Qi in the 37th minute to give Kashima a 1-0 win. Jeonbuk smashed Persipura Jayapura of Indonesia 8
