Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal set a world record for consecutive wins with his 28th win in a row to reach the semi-finals of the Asian Champions League on Tuesday. With a 2-0 victory over compatriot Al Ittihad, they surpassed the previous record of 27 consecutive wins by a top team, set by Welsh team The New Saints in 2016. Hilal from Riyadh, already the most successful team in AFC Champions League- history with four titles, winning a total of 4-0 in Jeddah.
Last year, Hilal finished second in the quarter-final at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium with second-half goals from Yasser Al Shahrani and Brazilian Malcom.
Hilal will face UAE side Al Ain in the last four next month, following the 2003 champions' victory over Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr on Monday.
Ittihad's miserable evening was summed up in the final minute of normal time, when forward Abderrazak Hamdallah was shown a second yellow card for grabbing Hilal defender Ali Al Bulaihi by the throat.
The confrontation led to a number of clashes between the opponents.
Ittihad, winners of the Champions League in 2004 and 2005, were missing a number of key players.
Karim Benzema, the 2022 Ballon d'Or winner signed from Real Madrid last summer, was again missing due to injury, while 2018 World Cup winner N'Golo Kante was suspended after being sent off in the first leg was sent.
However, it was the current Saudi Pro League champions who carried the biggest threat for most of the match.
Ittihad almost opened the scoring in the 17th minute when Romarinho's left-foot strike from the edge of Hilal's penalty area was fired back off the post.
At the start of the second half, Hilal goalkeeper Mohammed Al Owais was called into action twice. First, the Saudi Arabia international blocked Marwan Al Sahafi's low strike on the counter, before leaping to his right to brilliantly clear Ahmed Al Ghamdi's fierce strike.
But after 61 minutes, Hilal secured a place in the semi-finals.
Salem Al Dawsari played in Sergej Milinkovic-Savic for the Serbia international to feed Al Shahrani, who was low past Ittihad goalkeeper Abdullah Al Mayouf.
Malcom then wrapped up the result deep into stoppage time, racing onto Aleksandar Mitrovic's through ball to seal a memorable evening for the Riyadh giants.
Hilal, who lead the Saudi Pro League by 12 points, have won their past nine Champions League matches. They last lifted the trophy in 2021.
Ulsan edge Jeonbuk
Earlier on Tuesday, South Korea's Ulsan advanced to the semi-finals with a 1-0 second-leg victory over Jeonbuk Motors, edging past their compatriots 2-1.
The result also took Ulsan one step closer to securing a place in next year's expanded Club World Cup, which will be played between 32 teams in the United States.
Ulsan will face Japan's Yokohama F-Marinos or China's Shandong Taishan next month for a place in the Champions League final.
Seol Young-woo's volley in first-half stoppage time was enough to set up a thrilling quarter-final second leg between two teams who have shared the last seven K-League titles.
Yokohama and Shandong play in Japan on Wednesday with Harry Kewell's Yokohama leading 2-1 after the first leg.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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