JEDDAH, April 17 (Reuters) - Defending champions Al-Ahli battled back to defeat Malaysia's Johor Darul Ta'zim 2-1 on Friday to move into the Asian Champions League Elite semi-finals despite playing much of the game with 10 men.
Al-Ahli are the only Saudi Pro League club left in the competition after domestic champions Al-Ittihad were knocked out by Machida Zelvia, the Japanese side winning 1-0 through Tete Yengi's deflected strike.
Matthias Jaissle's title-holders advanced despite Ali Majrashi giving JDT the lead in the 19th minute when he put the ball into his own net under pressure from Marcos Guilherme.
Matters worsened for Majrashi when he was sent off eight minutes before the interval for knocking Jairo unconscious with a kick to the head as he sought to make an acrobatic clearance.
Al-Ahli responded positively to being reduced to 10 men, however, and the home side levelled three minutes into added time when Franck Kessie outjumped the defence to head home Riyad Mahrez's corner.
Galeno sidestepped Natxo Insa's challenge to unleash an unstoppable strike beyond Andoni Zubiaurre early in the second half to end JDT's hopes of becoming the first Malaysian side to reach the semi-finals.
"Until the red card, we didn't play our best game," said Jaissle. "We see more and more in football when teams sit in defence, we need to be patient.
"It's something we can do better but we made it and that's the most important."
Al-Ittihad had no such fortune as Sergio Conceicao's side were eliminated.
The Saudi champions went behind when Yengi's strike took a deflection off former Liverpool midfielder Fabinho to beat Predrag Rajkovic in the 31st minute.
Machida will face Thailand's Buriram United or Shabab Al-Ahli from the United Arab Emirates in the semi-finals with the pair due to meet in Jeddah on Sunday.
Al-Ahli will take on Japan's Vissel Kobe following their penalty shootout win over Al-Sadd from Qatar on Thursday.
(Reporting by Michael Church, Editing by Ed Osmond)
