Exciting Sunday at Club World Cup
An exciting pair of matches in the 2011 Club World Cup took place on Sunday at Toyota Stadium, just outside Nagoya.
In the early kick off, Al Sadd from Qatar defeated Esperance Sportive De Tunis 2-1 in a fractious match which saw a shoe thrown on to the pitch and a solitary fan run on to the field as Al Sadd wasted time at the end to hold on to a hard fought win over the African champions.
Very much against the run of play Asian champions Al Sadd took the lead in the first half with a headed goal from Khalfan Al Khalfan and doubled that lead five minutes in to the second half with a goal from Abdulla Koni with the assist provided by much-travelled Korean center-back Lee Jung-Soo.
Esperance pulled a goal back on the hour mark when a free kick from Ousama Darragi evaded everyone and found the net. Al Sadd now advance to a semi-final against mighty Barcelona fresh from their 3-1 win over Real Madrid in the Spanish clasico.
In the later match, J.League champions Kashiwa Reysol advanced to a meeting with Santos on Wednesday after a penalty shoot out win over Monterrey of Mexico. In a see-saw match that witnessed a number of missed chances by both teams, Reysol's Brazilian midfielder Leandro Domingues opened the scoring in the second half but the home team were soon pegged back by a goal from Monterrey's Chilean forward, Humberto Suazo.
Extra time produced no further goals and it was substitute Ryohei Hayashi, who won the match for Reysol 4-3 on penalties, sending the crowd rushing for the last train home.
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