Riding in a six-deep break on the bike, Potter pulled clear with teammate Sophie Coldwell over the 5 km finale. 5 Potter put on an impressive performance as she battled in the hot conditions to reign supreme and claim her first-ever gold at the highest level. Held at Yas Marina Circuit, the world’s best athletes began their quest to claim vital ranking points to qualify for next year’s Olympic Games in Paris on a day that also featured the Para Cup races. The team that emerges from the West Asian zone will go on to take on Urawa Reds of Japan in a two-legged final in April.ĪBU DHABI: Great Britain’s Alex Yee and Beth Potter made a winning start to their season after triumphing in the elite races of the World Triathlon Championship Series Abu Dhabi, presented by Daman, on Friday. The quarter-finals will take place on Thursday with the semifinal held next Sunday. On Monday, Al-Hilal meet Shabab Al-Ahli of the UAE while Al-Faisaly take on Iran’s Foolad. ![]() Sooner or later, it will be.Įarlier in the day, Al-Duhail triumphed in the all-Qatar tie, defeating Al-Rayyan 7-6 in a penalty shootout after 120 minutes ended 1-1. Al-Shabab gave a solid performance and left a sense that there is a higher gear that they can reach if needed. This time, however, his shot was saved by Nematov and that was that. The tie ended in familiar fashion with Banega bearing down on goal. With 15 minutes remaining, Javokhir Sidikov danced into the area and looked ready to pull the trigger but good defensive work from Nader Al-Sharari snuffed out the danger. The Central Asians did their best to get back into the game. Al-Qahtani laid the ball off for Banega, and just outside the right side of the area the Argentine let fly with a shot that fizzed off the inside foot of the right post and then into the net. Nine minutes after the restart, the roles from the first goal were reversed as Riyadh club took control of the tie in style. Yet the early breakthrough brought the Uzbekistan team out a little and they were almost back level eight minutes before the break when Riad Sharahili gave the ball away on the edge of the area but Oybek Bozorov’s shot cleared the bar. With Al-Shabab coming into the tournament on the back of four consecutive wins in the Roshn Saudi League where they sit joint top alongside Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr, it left Nasaf, who had never appeared in the knockout stage of the Champions League before, with a mountain to climb. While Abduvakhid Nematov looked to have it covered, a slight deflection wrongfooted the goalkeeper and the men in white were in front. Yet with the space given by the retreating defenders, he kept going and decided to have a shot. Ever Banega slotted the ball to Hussain Al-Qahtani, who galloped forward, and it seemed that all expected that the midfielder would lay the ball off. ![]() The opening goal came after just 12 minutes. Vicente Moreno’s men have looked like a serious contender from the beginning, winning their group in style by scoring 18 goals and conceding one, and look to have improved since the group stage finished last year. While this meeting in the West Asia zone of the continental tournament - which is divided into two geographic halves until the final - was a competitive one, once Al-Shabab took an early lead, they always looked likely to emerge victorious. If those two can follow Sunday’s victors in the last eight, they will be delighted and even more so if they progress as smoothly as Al-Shabab did against the team from Uzbekistan. One down, two to go, or rather one through to the quarter-finals of the Asian Champions League for Saudi Arabia with the potential for more to come.Īl-Shabab defeated FC Nasaf 2-0 in their second-round clash in Qatar on Sunday and it remains to be seen if they are joined in the last eight by fellow Saudi Arabian teams Al-Hilal and Al-Faisaly, who are in action on Monday.
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