A series of fortunate events helped Al Sadd secure a highly unlikely victory in the Asian Champions League, as John Duerden reports
The celebrations didn’t rival those from December last year, when Qatar was named host of World Cup 2022, but Al Sadd’s victory in the 2011 Asian Champions League has been painted as a triumph against the odds – inside the tiny peninsula at least. Elsewhere on the continent, however, the surprise was not a welcome one. All agree that the final itself was a thrilling affair. A crowd of 42,000 packed into the Jeonju World Cup stadium in South Korea to see local team Jeonbuk Motors host the west Asians.