Tashkent: Al Rayyan defeated Uzbekistan’s Pakhtakor 1-0 on Tuesday in the AFC Champions League Elite 2024/25 at JAR Stadium in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Hazem Ahmed scored the match’s only goal in the 51st minute, securing a crucial victory for the Qatar Stars League side.
According to Qatar News Agency, the victory earns Al Rayyan their first points of the campaign and moves them off the bottom of the standings in the league phase. Pakhtakor, meanwhile, remain on two points after four games and are still waiting for their first win in the competition. The club from Tashkent slipped out of the top eight places in the table that guarantee progress to March’s knockout rounds.
The home side had started brightly, with Sardor Sabirkhodjaev seeing his perfectly executed volley in the sixth minute tipped spectacularly over the bar by goalkeeper Paulo Victor as the Uzbek side pressed their visitors from the opening whistle. Pakhtakor went even closer in the 17th minute as Muhammadrasul Abdumajidov’s header thumped agai
nst Victor’s right post, while Khojiakbar Alijonov’s 27th-minute ball across the face of goal should have been tapped in by Otabek Jurakuziyev.
Three minutes into injury time, the home team was frustrated again, with Alijonov forcing Victor to push the ball away after Dragan Ceran flicked on goalkeeper Nazarov’s long punt forward. Pakhtakor continued to dictate the tempo after the interval before being caught out with a 51st-minute sucker punch when Shehata’s attempt from deep to find Roger Guedes in the penalty area was overhit, instead flying over Nazarov’s head and into the top corner.
Muhammadali Urinboev almost levelled the scores two minutes later, but Victor blocked his first-time effort from seven yards out after Umar Adhamzoda’s low centre from the left found the substitute in space to strike. Mahmoud Trezeguet’s header was just off target, and David Garcia flashed a ball across goal that should have been converted as Al Rayyan sought a second, while Abdumajidov volleyed over the bar with the Al Ra
yyan goal at his mercy from six yards moments later.
Ceran was given the chance to level with two minutes remaining, but the Pakhtakor captain’s tame header of Kimi Merk’s cross was easily collected by Victor, and Al Rayyan secured the three points.