Al Ain stay perfect as Al Nassr hit six without Ronaldo

Al Ain maintained their perfect start to the AFC Champions League Elite with a convincing 4-1 away win over Al Ittihad in Jeddah on Monday, while Al Nassr cruised to a 6-2 victory at Pakhtakor despite resting Cristiano Ronaldo.

Vladimir Ivic's side have now won all four group matches and sit top of the West Asia standings on 12 points. Kaku opened the scoring in the 17th minute after Predrag Rajkovic parried Georgios Giakoumakis' header into his path, and Rafael Rodrigues doubled the lead just before half-time with a cross that drifted in.

Marwan Al Sahafi pulled one back for Al Ittihad in the 53rd minute, but a heavily deflected cross from Houssine Rahimi restored Al Ain's two-goal cushion and Matias Palacios sealed the win with a 90th-minute penalty.

"I'm happy with the three points," Kaku was quoted as saying by the Saudi Press Agency. Coach Vladimir Ivic added: "We played a good match and managed to deal with the different technical circumstances of the game."

In Tashkent, Al Nassr produced their biggest AFC Champions League win, beating Pakhtakor 6-2. Abdullah Al Hamdan opened the scoring in the 15th minute and Joao Felix struck twice before the break. Abdulelah Al Amri, Abdulrahman Ghareeb and Angelo added further goals, with Flamarion and Dostonbek Khamdamov replying for the hosts.

Ronaldo, Kingsley Coman and Mohamed Simakan were all left in Riyadh by manager Ange Postecoglou to manage workload. "It has nothing to do with that," Postecoglou said when asked if Ronaldo's absence helped the team score more. "In the previous game, with Ronaldo, we scored five goals and he scored a hat-trick."

Elsewhere, Al Qadsiah beat Al Gharafa 5-0 in Qatar with Julian Quinones scoring twice, while two-time defending champions Al Ahli were held to a 0-0 draw at Al Sadd.

Shabab Al Ahli, the other UAE side with a perfect record, visit Al Hilal in Riyadh on Tuesday.