{"id":487579,"date":"2026-02-18T08:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T08:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/487579\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T08:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T08:58:08","slug":"last-16-set-as-rsl-trio-round-off-afc-champions-league-elite-group-in-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/487579\/","title":{"rendered":"Last-16 set as RSL trio round off AFC Champions League Elite group in style"},"content":{"rendered":"

The West Region league stage of the 2025-26 AFC Champions League Elite<\/a> concluded on Tuesday night, with our Roshn Saudi League clubs making up three of the top four slots.<\/p>\n

Al Hilal finished at the head of the 12-team standings with 22 points from a possible 24, the current RSL leaders<\/a> qualifying for the knockouts as the only unbeaten side in the entire competition – west and east.<\/p>\n

Al Ahli, who last year landed a historic first Asian crown<\/a>, made it an RSL one-two at the summit on the western side, while Jeddah rivals – and reigning Saudi champions<\/a> – Al Ittihad took fourth spot.<\/p>\n

The trio advance to the last 16, which will be played next month across home and away legs. Then, just like last year<\/a>, the tournament\u2019s closing rounds – quarter-finals to final – will be staged in Jeddah.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how our three teams booked their spots in the knockouts, and who they’ll meet in the next round.<\/p>\n

Al Hilal<\/p>\n

The record four-time Asian champions topped the West Region by going undefeated across the campaign. Indeed, Al Hilal reeled off seven victories from eight, the goalless draw at UAE\u2019s Shabab Al Ahli<\/a> on Matchday 7 representing their only dropped points.<\/p>\n

Simone Inzaghi\u2019s side rounded off the league phase on Monday with a 2-1 victory at home to another Emirati outfit, Al Wahda. Darwin Nunez, the summer signing from English giants Liverpool<\/a>, got both the hosts\u2019 goals at Kingdom Arena.<\/p>\n

——–<\/p>\n

Al Ahli<\/p>\n

The current title-holders proved they\u2019re not going to relinquish their crown without a fight, finishing second in the West Region to RSL championship rivals Al Hilal.<\/p>\n

Al Ahli, who sit third in the 2025-26 Saudi top flight<\/a>, won five of their eight games on the continent, losing twice, and have generally looked excellent in defence of the trophy.<\/p>\n

With 21 goals, including another impressive haul in Monday\u2019s 4-3 victory at home to Shabab Al Ahli<\/a>, Matthias Jaissle\u2019s men rank as the 2025-26 tournament\u2019s second-highest scorers, behind fellow Jeddah giants Al Ittihad.<\/p>\n

Last-16 match-up: Al Duhail<\/a> (Qatar)<\/p>\n

——–<\/p>\n

Al Ittihad<\/p>\n

The league phase\u2019s top scorers (22 goals), searching for a third Asian crown and first since the second of back-to-back titles in 2005, recovered brilliantly after losing the opening two matchdays to ultimately come home fourth.<\/p>\n

To their immense credit, Al Ittihad reeled off five victories from their remaining six fixtures, culminating in Tuesday night\u2019s 4-1 triumph away to Qatar\u2019s Al Sadd.<\/p>\n

New signing Youssef En Nesyri<\/a> was on the scoresheet yet again – a goal in a third successive appearance for Al Ittihad<\/a> – while fellow fresh recruit Stephane Keller marked his debut by finding the net, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"View publisher imprint<\/a>Share this article<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The West Region league stage of the 2025-26 AFC Champions League Elite concluded on Tuesday night, with our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-487579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}