AFC - Al Ahli captain Taiseer Al Jassam struck twice in seven second-half minutes as the Saudi club moved three points clear at the top of Group D in the AFC Champions League with a 2-0 win over Iranian outfit Tractorsazi Tabriz on Wednesday.

Al Jassam broke the deadlock in the 72nd minute and found the net again with 11 minutes left to give Al Ahli their second win in the group, which sent them up to seven points, three in front of Uzbek side Nasaf, who drew 0-0 with Al Ahli of the United Arab Emirates earlier on Wednesday.

Tractorsazi suffered their second away defeat in the group and they now find themselves in third place, four points behind the leaders.

Al Jassam’s goals lit up what had been largely a dour match, played in front of a large crowd at King Abdullah Sports City.

There were few efforts of note in the first half with the best opportunity falling to Tractrorsazi’s Brazilian forward Edinho, who saw his fierce shot superbly parried away by goalkeeper Abdullah Al Maiouf.

Hussain Al Maiouf had a great opening for the hosts right at the start of the second half but his volley from just inside the box was deflected wide by defender Mirmahdi Ghoreishi.

Both teams lacked a real cutting edge and the match looked destined to end in a stalemate before Al Jassam took matters into his own hands and opened the scoring with 18 minutes left.

The Al Ahli skipper arrived in the box to receive Omar Al Soma’s cutback from the right byline and he fired a low effort that skipped off the ground and bounced over the despairing dive of goalkeeper Hamed Lak to nestle into the back of the net.

It was Al Jassam’s second goal of the Group Stage and he would increase his tally to three in the 79th minute when he was superbly picked out by Mustafa Al Bassas’ centering pass and sent a delicate chip past Lak into the top corner of the net to secure the victory for the home side.