Suwon down Nasaf to reach Asian Club Championship final

Asian-Football - Defending champions Suwon Samsung Bluewings of Korea have advanced to their second consecutive Asian Club Championship final after defeating Uzbekistan's Nasaf Karsi 3-0 in monsoon conditions at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran.

Goals by Alen Avdic, Seo Jung-won and substitute Lee Son-woo sealed the victory for Suwon in a match that had to be halted midway through the second half due to torrential rain and lightning.

With a passing game proving difficult on the heavily drenched pitch, both sides resorted to playing the ball long and attempting to capitalise on mistakes by the opposition.

Nasaf were fortunate to escape the awarding of a penalty after just seven minutes when the referee failed to spot Alisher Bazarov handling a cross by Seo Jung-won

The best chance of the first half fell to Bosnian striker Avdic whose low shot from the edge of the area on 13 minutes beat Nasaf goalkeeper Petr Gizimchuk but came back off the woodwork. Avdic, playing in place of the suspended Sandro Cardoso, also had a close range half-volley turned over by Gizimchuk in the 35th minute.

However, the Bosnian finally gave his side the lead three minutes into the second half when he rose in the Nasaf penalty box to meet a long ball by Lee Byoung-keun. Avdic glanced a header towards goal and it just managed to find a gap between Gizimchuk and his right post.

The game was suspended about 20 minutes into the second half when the heavy rain intensified. Play was resumed about half an hour later and Seo Jung-won put Suwon two goals up shortly after when he stole in unmarked at the far post to head in Lee Byoung-keun's accurate cross from the left.

Lee Son-woo was denied an almost certain goal with five minutes remaining when his close range effort was stopped by a puddle in front of the Nasaf goalkeeper but a minute from the end, he made no mistake when he got clear of the Nasaf defence and lashed in Suwon's third goal.

Suwon will meet the winner of the second semi-final between Iran's Esteghlal and Korea's Anyang LG in Friday's final.