- Al Sadd the first Qatari football club to reach Asian Champions League final
- Jorge Fossati's team beat South Korea's Suwon Bluewings 2-1 on aggregate
- Al Sadd will face Jeonbuk Motors, after Koreans beat Saudi Arabia's Al Ittihad
- The final will be at Jeonbuk's Jeonju World Cup Stadium on November 5
(CNN) -- Al Sadd coach Jorge Fossati praised his team for overcoming a "big injustice" to become the first Qatari football club to reach the Asian Champions League final.
The former Uruguay coach saw his Doha-based team record a 2-1 aggregate victory over Suwon Bluewings after losing 1-0 to South Korea's two-time Asian champions on Wednesday, despite having key players suspended following an ill-tempered first leg last week.
"Of course we are very, very happy," the 58-year-old told the Asian Football Confederation website. "To overcome them was difficult. There were many problems and yet we won and that's why I am happy.
"You know we had to play this game with big injustice. We didn't have some players because of non-football issues. In this situation, we tried to do our best with whatever resources we had."
Five players and coaches were suspended for the match at the Sheik Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, after a mass brawl broke out following Al Sadd's controversial second goal in the 2-0 win in Suwon on October 19.
Jorge Fossati
The fighting erupted after Senegal striker Mamadou Niang scored his and Al Sadd's late second goal while Suwon's players were tending to an injured teammate, presuming play had been halted.
Former Marseille forward Niang was later sent off and missed the return leg along with Ivory Coast attacker Kader Keita and goalkeeping coach Suhail Saber Ali, while Suwon were missing Macedonian striker Stevica Ristic and coach Ko Jong-Su.
But even without their star players, Al Sadd held on after Oh Jang-Eun had given Suwon a 1-0 lead with a sixth-minute volley, as Khalfan Ibrahim hit the Koreans' crossbar with a vicious long-range shot before halftime.
Earlier on Wednesday, South Korea's Jeonbuk Motors advanced to the November 5 final courtesy of a 5-3 aggregate win over Saudi Arabia's Al Ittihad.
After a 3-2 away success last week, the 2006 Asian champions won 2-1 thanks to first-half goals from Brazil forward Eninho.
Al Ittihad's only response was a late consolation goal from former Bordeaux winger Wendel Geraldo, after both teams had been reduced to 10 men.
Al Ittihad, the 2004 and 2005 champions, suffered an early blow when Naif Hazazi -- the scorer of both first-leg goals -- was sent off in the 11th minute for a headbutt, while Jeonbuk substitute Krunoslav Lovrek received a second yellow card late in the match.
Jeonbuk coach Choi Kang-Hee was pleased his team would have home advantage at the Jeonju World Cup Stadium.
"We got what we wanted," said Choi, a former Suwon coach. "We are at home for the final and that is an advantage for us. The lead we took from the first leg gave us some breathing space at home but we knew well that Al Ittihad are a very good team.
"We expected them to come at us strongly and we were ready for that. Eninho's goals were a big help but we still had work to do and were able to get the result we needed."
Jeonbuk will attempt to keep the Champions League title in South Korean hands for the third year in succession, after Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma's victory in 2010 and the Pohang Steelers' 2009 triumph.
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