DOHA (Qatar): Iran’s Esteghlal FC hammered Qatar’s Al Rayyan 5-0 to book their place in the 2020 AFC Champions League group stage here on Tuesday.
Mehdi Ghaedi and substitute Amir Arsalan Motahari scored a brace each while Cheick Diabate opened the scoring in the ninth minute to shut out the local side, who missed out on a place in the group stage for the first time since 2017.
Esteghlal had arrived to the play-off stage on the back of a 3-0 win over Kuwait SC in the second preliminary round.
Rayyan had finished fourth in the 2018-19 Qatar Stars League season.
Vorya Ghafouri and Diabate had between them scored all of Esteghlal’s three goals in the previous round, and on the occasion their combination produced the opener.
Ghafouri beat the Rayyan wall and the goalkeeper with a well-struck free-kick from 25 yards, but his shot ricocheted off the upright and into the path of Diabate who controlled and hammered the rebound into the back of the net.
Diabate in top form
Five minutes before the break, Diabate turned from scorer to provider.
The Malian striker broke free on the counter and crossed for Mehdi Ghaedi whose looped header nestled into the far corner of goalkeeper Fahad Younis to send Esteghlal into the break with a two-goal lead.
The same pattern continued after the restart with the visitors dominating.
Rayyan defence failed to deal with a Hrvoje Milic cross, allowing the ball to fall for Ghaedi inside the box and the Esteghlal number 10 composedly fired home his side’s third of the night in the 47th minute.
Substitute Amir Arsalan Motahari added his name to the scoresheet with seven minutes to go. The striker received Ghafouri’s cross at the edge of the area and drove home Esteghlal’s fourth goal despite Younis’ desperate attempts to save.
Just before the final whistle, Motahari rounded off the scoring in a similar fashion following a cross from Arash Rezavand to make it 5-0.
