RIYADH: Sadio Mane struck in extra-time to give Al-Nassr a 1-0 win over Al-Ettifaq to send his team into the last eight of the King’s Cup.
The former Liverpool and Bayern Munich forward struck after 107 minutes of an at times bad-tempered tie in which Al-Nassr played with 10 men for the most part after Anderson Talisca was sent off at the end of the first half.
Talisca looked to have given Al-Nassr a first-half lead, getting on the end of an inswinging cross from Alex Telles to stab home from close range. VAR intervened to rule it offside.
It was to get worse for the Brazilian deep into first-half injury time. Talisca was given a yellow card for what seemed to be an extended arm but, after intervention from VAR, it was upgraded to a red.
The decision enraged the team from Riyadh but despite being a man short, they still pushed forward with Telles and Mane coming close and with Cristiano Ronaldo a constant threat.
Al-Ettifaq later found themselves down to 10 men as Ali Hazzazi saw red at the end of the second half.
Mane then had the last word in extra-time to sweep home an Ayman Yahya left-sided cross from close range, and there was no way back for Steven Gerrard’s men.
Al-Ittihad have been struggling in the league with no wins in four but picked up a welcome victory, defeating Al-Fayha 3-0 thanks to two goals from Abderrazak Hamdallah and one from Karim Benzema.
The Moroccan marksman opened the scoring after just five minutes. Romarinho slipped the ball through and Hamdallah lifted his shot over the advancing Vladimir Stojkovic.
Three minutes from the end, Hamdallah picked up the ball just inside the area and fired a low shot into the bottom corner to seal the win, before Benzema also got on the scoresheet.
Earlier in the day, Al-Shabab also moved into the quarter-finals with a 2-1 win at Al-Fateh, while Al-Taawoun eased past Al-Wehda with a 2-0 victory.
Al-Hilal, Al-Khaleej, and Al-Faisaly progressed on Monday.
