A troubled AFC Champions League Elite playoff stage, beset by international conflict, low attendance and controversial refereeing decisions, concludes Saturday when Japan’s Machida Zelvia faces Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ahli in the final.
Machida, appearing in the regional soccer competition for the first time, edged Shabab Al-Ahli of the United Arab Emirates 1-0 in Tuesday’s semifinal which took place in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, which is also site of the final.
The Japanese club was spared late heartbreak when a video replay ruled out a stoppage-time equalizer from Shabab winger Guilherme after determining play had restarted with a throw-in before a Machida substitution was completed.
Shabab was furious and, at the final whistle, referee Shaun Evans was escorted off by police in the face of vehement player protests.
“There was a goal that was scored and then it was canceled. This is a very technical mistake by the referee,” Shabab coach Paulo Sousa said. “Unfortunately, this is what is turning football into rubble."
Only 395 fans attended the match, in stark contrast to the 44,717 who watched local club Al-Ahli defeat Japan’s Vissel Kobe 2-1 in the other semifinal.
The tournament has also been disrupted by the U.S.-Iran war. Round-of-16 matches in the Western zone — the competition is split geographically during the group stage — were postponed from March to April and reduced from two legs to one.
There were also doubts over whether East Asian teams would travel to Saudi Arabia for the knockout rounds, but Machida, which has never won the J.League title, is now 90 minutes from its first major trophy.
“This is the first time Machida Zelvia is competing in Asia, and the players are performing really well,” coach Go Kuroda said. “The atmosphere will be immense, so we have to keep our composure. We would like to maintain our high level and not focus too much on the opponent.”
Al-Ahli will have both crowd and star power on its side in front of an expected 60,000 fans. England striker Ivan Toney leads the Saudi Pro League goal-scoring rankings with 27 and scored the winner against Vissel Kobe.
The defending champions also feature former Manchester City winger Riyad Mahrez and Brazilian Galeno.
“We’re really proud to be in the final again. Back-to-back is something special and a huge honor and privilege,” Al-Ahli coach Matthias Jaissle said. “We want to make it happen again. Back-to-back titles are now a big goal, and being here is already a marvelous.
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FILE - Brentford's Ivan Toney applauds fans after the English Premier League soccer match between Tottenham Hotspur and Brentford at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, Jan. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)
ŠIAULIAI AIR BASE, Lithuania (AP) — When NATO's call came, the French fighter pilots scrambled with practiced urgency, already suited up to shorten their response times.
They dashed in vans to hangars where their prepped and armed Rafale jets awaited, clambered into the cockpits and fired up the engines, which puffed and screamed.
Within minutes of takeoff from the Šiauliai Air Base in Lithuania, they were over the Baltic Sea, first intercepting a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft and then tailing supersonic Russian bombers and their fighter escorts that neared the airspace of multiple NATO countries.
In a conflict situation, things could quickly get heated. But for the moment, with Russia and the military alliance at odds over Ukraine but not at war, pilots on both sides just watched and filmed each other — keeping their distance like wary tomcats with claws unsheathed, their missiles visible but not used.
One of the points of the posturing — in aerial ballets that take place away from public gaze hundreds of times a year — is to try to ensure that the frostiness between NATO and the Kremlin over Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine doesn't tilt into open hostility.
Commanders and pilots flying NATO air-policing missions on the eastern flank of the 32-nation military alliance say that their goal is to deter, not provoke. They believe their presence is reassuring for Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — that border Russia and its ally Belarus but don't themselves have airpower to fight off any Russian attack, if it ever came to that.
“It's a game of cat and mouse, or rather cat and cat,” said Lt. Col. Alexandre, commander of a French air force wing of four Rafales that is sharing the Lithuanian base with another fighter detachment from Romania. Citing security concerns, the French military withheld the commander's surname.
“We watch each other, scrutinize each other and try to make sure that it doesn't go any further," he said.
Alliance members take turns policing Baltic skies around the clock, seven days a week. The French inherited the building that now serves as their temporary headquarters from a Spanish detachment. They will hand it over to Italian replacements in August. Successive teams leave plaques and badges on a wall that records their passage.
NATO scrambles jets to identify and possibly take other action when Russian planes fly in Baltic airspace without switched-on transponders and without filing flight plans or communicating by radio with air traffic controllers.
“There are plenty of times in which, on purpose or not, they’re not really respecting the ICAO — the International Civil Aviation Organization — rules, regarding flight plans and behavior," said Col. Mihaita Marin, commanding the Romanian detachment of six F-16s.
“So obviously we are forced to take off and just make sure that they are who they say they are and their intention is peaceful,” he said.
The arrival of spring, bringing better flying conditions, means French and Romanian flyers have been busy since they deployed at the start of April on four-month NATO rotations.
Marin said interceptions “are getting close to daily" and "that will definitely increase as the weather is getting better."
French aircrews — watched by an Associated Press journalist who was reporting at the airbase — had their busiest day so far on Monday.
Scrambled under NATO command, French Rafales met and observed a pair of Russian Tu-22M3 bombers carrying supersonic, anti-ship missiles from their bellies that Russia has also used in Ukraine, repurposing them to attack ground targets, and which can be equipped to carry a nuclear warhead.
The strategic bombers' more than four-hour flight from an airbase near St. Petersburg, escorted by Su-30 and Su-35 fighters, remained in international airspace but took them past the coasts of NATO countries Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, doubling back when they approached Denmark.
The French detachment said the Russian planes didn’t have switched-on transponders, file flight plans or enter into radio contact. Fighter jets from Sweden, Finland, Poland, Denmark and Romania also went airborne to keep watch, according to the French. NATO didn't respond to requests for comment.
The French commander, Lt. Col. Alexandre, said it isn't clear why Russian pilots behave in ways that could endanger other users of Baltic airspace.
“We don’t know if it’s lack of professionalism or just a means for them to test us," he said.
“But what is sure is that we need to go every time," he added. "We cannot say, 'OK, that's usual, this time we will just let them pass.'”
French air force Commander Dorian (surname withheld by the French military) uses his hands to shield his ears from the scream of the jet engines of a Rafale fighter preparing to take off from the Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania on a NATO air-policing mission on Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/John Leicester)
Members of a French air force detachment of personnel and Rafale jets stationed on a monthslong deployment at the Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania on a NATO air-policing mission play chess in the detachment's headquarters at the base on Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/John Leicester)
A member of the French air wing of Rafale fighters jets deployed on a NATO air-policing mission at the Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania wears a mission badge on her arm on Sunday, April 19, 2026 (AP Photo/John Leicester).
Romanian air force Col. Mihaita Marin, commander of a Romanian air wing of F-16 fighter jets deployed at the Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania on a NATO air-policing mission, speaks during an interview on Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/John Leicester)
A flight-crew member climbs into the cockpit of a French air force Rafale fighter jet stationed on a NATO air-policing mission at the Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania as another member of the French detachment stands at the foot of the ladder on Sunday, April 19, 2026 (AP Photo/John Leicester)
