News
| Ittihad wins AFC Championship | |
| Date: 1/1/2004 | |
| By: Al S |
Al Ittihad (KSA)
Saudi Arabia’s Al Ittihad won the AFC Champions League 2004, beating Korean league champions Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma in what must surely rank as one of the most remarkable comebacks in the history of Asian club football.
Trailing 3-1 from the home leg in Jeddah, the Tigers scored five unanswered goals in the second leg in front of a full house in Korea to win Asia’s most prestigious knockout tournament 6-3 on aggregate.
Cha Kyung-bok’s side appeared to have put the tie away in the opening leg when late goals by Kim Do-hoon, his ninth of the campaign, and Jang Hak-young had condemned the Saudi champions to a 3-1 defeat.
In the wake of that loss, coach Tomaslav Ivic was dismissed and replaced by his inexperienced assistant Dragan Talajic. His first game in charge of Al Ittihad would prove to be a remarkable one.
Having weathered an early storm, the visitors took the lead on 27 minutes when Redha Tukar rose above the Seongnam defence to head home. They doubled their tally just before the break when Tcheco’s lofted free-kick fell to Hamzah Idris who prodded the ball home from close range.
Belief coursed through Al Ittihad in the second half as they absorbed Seongnam’s early pressure before hitting the Koreans on the counterattack in the 55th minute, skipper Mohammad Noor firing home at the far post.
Seongnam were exposed again in the 78th minute as Noor scored his second of the night before Manaf Abushgeer curled in a fifth five minutes into added time to secure a remarkable win.
In the course of winning their first continental title since the 1998/99 Asian Cup Winners’ Cup, Al Ittihad had battled through a series of tough battles against some of the best teams on the continent.
In the group stage, they edged past Sepahan, beating out the Iran Pro League champions by virtue of a better head-to-head record after a 4-0 victory in Jeddah. They then took on Chinese giants Dalian Shide in the quarter-finals, winning 2-1 on aggregate, before eliminating Korean FA Cup winners Chonbuk Motors 4-3 on aggregate in the semi-finals, thanks to Osama Al Harbi’s crucial goal two minutes from time in Korea.
Seongnam’s run to the final had seen them eliminate Japan league champions Yokohama F Marinos in the group stage before handing out a thumping to Sharjah of the United Arab Emirates in the quarter-finals. Their best performance came in the semi-finals when they bounced back from a goalless draw to beat Pakhtakor 2-0, handing the Uzbek champions their first home defeat in the AFC Champions League after 10 successive home wins.
Al Ain of the United Arab Emirates, the champions of the inaugural AFC Champions League, had bowed out in the quarter-finals after a 5-1 aggregate defeat at the hands of Chonbuk Motors.