South Korea’s Jeonbuk win AFC Champions League as Douglas misses penalty for Al Ain in second leg of final
Brazilian fails to level the aggregate scores as the visiting side win the title with a 3-2 aggregate victory after the match in Al Ain finishes 1-1
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors were crowned the 2016 AFC Champions League winners on Saturday night as a 1-1 draw with inaugural champions Al Ain earned Choi Kang-hee’s side a 3-2 aggregate victory and a place at December’s finals of the Fifa Club World Cup.
Han Kyo-won gave Jeonbuk the lead on the night, and extended the K League Classic side’s advantage following their 2-1 first leg win, in the 30th minute before Lee Myung-joo levelled for Al Ain four minutes later.
But a missed penalty by Brazilian striker Douglas in the dying minutes of the first half and a resolute defensive showing in the second half by the 2006 winners was enough to seal Jeonbuk a second AFC Champions League crown.
Al Ain coach Zlatko Dalic made one change from the team who lost the first leg, bringing in Douglas in place of Mohamed Abdulrahman while Jeonbuk made two changes, with Lee Dong-gook replacing Kim Shin-wook and Lim Jong-eun making way Cho Sung-hwan.
Trailing by a goal from the opening game in Jeonju, it came as little surprise that Al Ain started aggressively, Caio narrowly failing to connect with Danilo Asprilla’s low cross before Omar Abdulrahman’s header minutes later was saved at point blank range by Kwoun Sun-tae.
Midway through the half Douglas’ speared effort from distance was pushed away by Kwoun and the Brazilian was again causing problems in the 28th minute when his overhead attempt following Caio’s cross flew back across the face of goal to safety.