Dubai: Shabab Al Ahli of the UAE defeated Al Gharafa in their AFC Champions League Elite 2025/25 tie at the Rashid Stadium on Monday. The win gave the side from the United Arab Emirates their third win and took them to 10 points. The loss was Al Gharafa's fourth, leaving the Qatar side on three points, the AFC website reported.

According to Qatar News Agency, Kauan Santos gave the home side the lead in the ninth minute when he threaded his way past three Al Gharafa defenders and drilled a low shot that struck defender Aron Gunnarsson's boot and went past a lunging Khalifa Ababacar into the bottom right corner.

Play slowed down until the 28th minute, when an unmarked Guilherme Bala doubled his side's lead by bending the ball from outside the area, again past a diving Ababacar and into the bottom right.

Florinel Coman gave the visitors their first look at goal four minutes later when he burst past the defense and launched a point-blank shot that forced keeper Hamad Al Meqbaali into a reflexive save.

Jamal Hamed came close to putting Al Gharafa back into the match, but his flicked header off a Coman corner rolled past the right post just before the end of the first half.

Yuri Cesar should have increased Shabab Al Ahli's lead in the 58th minute, but the striker, with only Ababacar to beat, decided to pass to Sultan Adil, who was closed down by two defenders.

Ababacar later went full stretch to keep out skipper Federico Cartabia's close-range shot and was again at his best in the 73rd minute when he palmed away Bogdan Planic's header.

At the other end, Coman saw his shot cleared on the line by Santos, with Al Meqbaali comfortably saving Mohammed Muntari's follow-up header.

Shabab Al Ahli will look to continue their winning ways when they face Al Saad SC, while Al Gharafa play UAE's Al Wahda FC, with both matches scheduled for December 23.