Ittifaq and Al-Ittihad made sure they advanced to the last 16 of the AFC Champions League (ACL) with one more round of the group stage to go. Al-Ittihad returns home from Tehran with one precious point after drawing 1-1 with Esteghlal at the Azadi Stadium. The single point extended Al-Ittihad lead at top of Group C to nine points, one ahead of Umm Salal of Qatar, which also drew 2-2 with the UAE's Al-Jazira in Doha. Al-Ittifaq secured a passage to the knockout stage of the competition following a 4-0 rout of Uzbekistan's Bunyodkor in Dammam. Ghanaian Prince Tagoe scored a brace for Al-Ittifaq before his partners Saleh Basher and Waleed Al-Raja completed the score after the break. Ettifaq leads Group D with 12 points. Bunyodkor is second on seven. Al-Shabab of the UAE is last despite beating third-place Foolad Sepahan of Iran 2-1 in Dubai earlier Tuesday. In the match played in Tehran Moroccan Hicham Aboucherouane put Al-Ittihad ahead 10 minutes from time before substitute Ali Alizadeh rescued Esteghlal with an eqaulizer two minutesfrom time. Elsewhere, South Korea's Pohang Steelers and Japan's Kashima Antlers also booked their berths in the knockout rounds. Pohang beat Australia's Central Coast Mariners 3-2 to line up alongside Japan's Kawasaki Frontale in the last 16 from Group H. Defending champion Gamba Osaka and Uzbek giants Pakhtakor are the other teams already through. The victory extinguished any faint hopes that China's Tianjin Tada had of going through from the group, with their 3-1 victory over Kawasaki meaning little. Marquinhos scored twice on his return from injury for Kashima Antlers as they won their heavyweight clash with South Korea's Suwon Bluewings 3-0. The J-League heavyweights progressed to the next round after Shanghai Shenhua only managed a 1-1 draw away to Singapore Armed Forces. Shanghai now has seven points to Suwon's nine. In Group F, FC Seoul beat Indonesia's Sriwijaya 5-1 with a hat trick from Dejan Damjanovic and a brace by Sim Woo-Yeon doing the damage. It kept Seoul's hopes alive, moving it to seven points alongside China's Shandong Luneng, which plays Wednesday. Gamba Osaka has already qualified from the group. __
