After more thrills and spills on Matchday Two, the continental competition takes a two-week break, while the-AFC.com takes a look back at some of the key statistics from the week that was.

The 2011 champions followed up their Matchday One win over Al Wasl with a solid performance against Persepolis at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, picking up their second straight win courtesy yet another brace from Baghdad Bounedjah.

Bounedjah strikes again for Al Sadd

After coming off the bench to score twice and deliver an Al Sadd comeback win over Al Wasl in Dubai last week, Bounedjah showcased his array of abilities once again with two well-taken goals against Persepolis.

While the first goal had Bounedjah hoodwinking an entire defence with a stealthy run, his second saw him show great composure while facing two defenders head-on, before calmly slotting home to make it 2-0.

Two early goals were enough to seal all three points, but the win wasn’t without a few scares as the home side pushed hard in the second half to claw their way back into the game.

Lively Lee

Midfielder Lee Chang-min was one of the best for the visitors, and it was he who opened the scoring in just the second minute with a powerful effort outside the box.

The 24-year-old was a tireless worker in midfielder, both getting forward and tracking back, as highlighted by his passing graph below, which also shows that a lot of his passes were forward.

It wasn’t through a lack of trying, however, as both sides created more than enough chances to score, with both goalkeepers also making a number of key saves to keep the ball out.

The graph below shows the shots on-and-off target for both teams, which just highlights the amount of opportunities both teams created on the evening. Cerezo Osaka (left) were most guilty of wasting their chances, with almost all their shots off-target.

The visitors, who impressed throughout, almost went ahead in the 23rd minute when Alex Brosque hit the bar with a glancing shot from Aaron Calver’s low cross.

But three minutes later, Shenhua took the lead when Obafemi Martins bundled home from Li Yunqiu’s cut-back.

It took just two minutes for Sydney to equalise as Li Shuhai saved Bobo’s header from Luke Wilshire’s cross but Wilshire was on hand to net the rebound from a tight angle.

And Sydney silenced the home fans when they went 2-1 up in the 34th minute. Milos Ninkovic created the chance with a neat through pass and Brosque took a couple of touches before crashing home an unstoppable effort from 12 yards out.

But Shanghai’s response was quick and Fredy Guarin tied the score at 2-2 five minutes later. Andrew Redmayne fell to the floor after punching clear Bai Jiajun’s cross and Guarin was perfectly positioned on the edge of the box to volley into the net.

Sydney looked set to regain the lead in the 59th minute when a defence-splitting pass from Adrian Mierzejewski put Brosque through on goal. The striker rounded Li Shuai but could not find the right angle for his shot and fired into the side netting.

Guarin then almost scored his second of the match as Redmayne beat out his powerful drive, before Martins and Ninkovic both came close to snatching a winner in the closing stages of an action-packed game.

It took just eight minutes for Kashima to open the scoring after some superb interplay. Yuma Suzuki drove in from the left and played the ball inside to Yasushi Endo. The midfielder floated a delicate first time ball into the path of Kanazaki who calmly side footed home.

Suwon had the perfect chance to level when they won a penalty in the 24th minute after Waguininho fell under contact from Leo Silva. But the hosts spurned the opportunity when Dejan Damjanovic’s spot-kick was saved by Kwoun Sun-tae.

Yeom Ki-hun’s free-kick went wide in the 34th minute but Kashima remained dangerous on the break and Kanazaki’s curling effort forced No Dong-geon to punch clear.

The visitors then had a great chance to add a second two minutes after the interval, but Suzuki’s header from Kanazaki’s cross went straight to goalkeeper No Dong-geon.

But it wouldn’t be long before Kashima scored again. Just before the hour mark, Endo swung in a fine cross and Kento Misao dived to head across goal. His effort looked goal-bound but Kanazaki nodded home on the line to make sure.

Kashima came close to a third when Hiroki Abe smashed a shot off the crossbar with five minutes remaining but Cristovam’s fine solo effort in the 89th minute gave Suwon hope before the J.League side held on for the victory.

Kashima will approach another road trip to Sydney FC with confidence in two weeks, while Suwon will look to get a better result at home against Shanghai Shenhua.

The home side’s contingent of foreign stars were on fire as they made it two wins in as many matches to get their 2018 AFC Champions League campaign off to the best possible start.

Oscar On Fire

Shanghai SIPG’s record-signing Oscar produced one of his best performances in a red shirt, linking up with fellow Brazilian Hulk and Wu Lei to terrorise the visitors’ defence.

Mostly operating on the left in a 4-3-3 formation, he completed a total of 57 passes at 83 percent accuracy, and also had six shots and six key passes, as highlighted by his passing graph below.