AFC Champions League final. Al-Hilal draw at home and lose Al-Dosari!

Saudi champions Al Hilal were content with a positive 1-1 draw with Japan's Urawa Red Diamonds in the first leg of the AFC Champions League final on Saturday at King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh, and received a painful blow by expelling its top scorer Salem Al-Dosari, who will miss the second leg in Saitama on May 6.

Al-Dosari opened the scoring for the hosts (13), while Shinzo Kuroki equalized for the guests (53), before the winger was expelled four minutes before the end for a violent act after Ken Iyawa kicked him after being dropped to the ground by the latter (86).
The absence of Al-Dosari will be a strong blow to Al-Hilal, who holds the record number of titles (4) and is looking to consolidate its power, while Urawa wants a third title after 2007 and 2017.
More than a year after its launch, the final of the 2022 edition was finally held. Urawa booked the final ticket nearly nine months ago, while the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic helped stage the final more than a year after the tournament began.
Al Hilal, led by Argentine coach Ramon Dias, showed its ability to compete continentally and even internationally, after finishing runners-up to Real Madrid (3-5) in the final of the Club World Cup last February, where they beat South American champions Flamengo.
The "leader" opened the scoring after Brazilian Michael passed a creeping cross from the right side, exceeded all the players in front of the goal and the goalkeeper failed to pick it up to Al-Dosari towards the second post followed by a rocket in the net (13), scoring his seventeenth goal in the AFC Champions League.
The two teams posed little danger in the first half and the only other attempt on goal was through a header by Norwegian defender Marius Hoebraten Urawa saved by goalkeeper Abdullah Al-Mayouf (43).
The guests equalized early in the second half with a gift from the hosts, as the defender returning from injury Ali Al-Blihi tried to cut a ball in depth directed to Kuroki, continued its way towards the goal and hit the crossbar while Al-Mayouf was trying to catch it, to prepare in front of Kuroki to follow it from the middle of the area in the net (53).
Malian Moussa Marega had a chance to give Al-Hilal the lead when he shot from the right side inside the area that passed very close to the right post (66).
Al-Dosari was expelled before the end of the match after he kicked his leg Ken Iawa in response to being dropped to the ground by the latter amid the disappointment of the hosts.
This is the third final between Al Hilal and Urawa in six years, the Japanese team was crowned in 2017 (1-1 and 1-0) when Argentine Ramon Dias was coach of Al Hilal in his first spell, then the Saudi team responded in the 2019 final (1-0 and 2-0) when they won their third title before adding the fourth in 2021 at the expense of South Korea's Pohang Steels 2-0.
This is the last edition of the Champions League in its current format, before the 2023-2024 season shifts to "European time", with the competition starting in August before concluding in May the following year.