The victory, Al Ahed's first in three rounds, kept the Lebanese club alive for a berth in the last eight for the second successive time. They climbed to second place with four points with Bahrain's Al Muharraq leading the table with seven points. Dhaka League and Federation Cup champions Brothers remained bottom of the table with one point after their second defeat.

Al Ahed were reduced to ten men in the 51st minute when defender Hassan Nassarallah was sent off for his second bookable offence. But the visitors, who were leading 2-1 at that stage, did not show the weakness and scored another goal in the remaining time to seal three valuable points.

Even before the home side were settled, captain Bassem Marmar opened the account in the fifth minute with a side-header after Sierra Leone midfielder Abu Bakkar curled a freekick over the wall from 25 yards.

Topu wasted a great chance ten minutes later when the Brothers forward shot the ball over the lone keeper inside from the box. But he made amends five minutes from the short whistle with an equaliser in his second attempt. Topu dribbled past Al Ahed defender Kabiru Ibrahim with a through from Pranotosh Das but his shot was parried by goalkeeper Bilal Hachim. The ball ran wide but Topu kept his cool to tap it in from an acute angle.

Both the sides had chances in the first half but Ahed's 18-year-old midfielder Hassan Maatuk and his Brothers counterpart Abul Hossain shot the ball over.

The Lebanese returned to the second half with fresh vigour and defender Abbas Kenaan joined the attack during a corner to set up El Ali Mahmud's goal in the 50th minute. Kenaan received an across-the-pitch lob from Maatuk after a quickly taken corner and drove a powerful cross to Mahmud who pounced home from handshaking distance.

The pair of Maatuk and Abbas, with skill and speed, kept the home defence under constant threat but goalkeeper Aminul made superb saves to deny efforts by Bakaar and Maatuk after Shuvra made a goalline save on Atwi's intelligent chip over Aminul.

It was Kenaan who found the net in the 76th minute from close after Aminul and his fellow defenders were unsettled by a left-side centre by substitute Osama Haider.

Al Ahed coach Jamal Al Haj said after the match that they were confident to win the rest of the matches and qualify for the knockout stage.

"We lost to Muharraq and drew with Mahindra but in both games, we were the better side. So I am confident this win will give us a boost to look forward," said Jamal praising his attacking pair Atwi and Maatuk.

"We could have won big as the forwards wasted a number of chances. I think after scoring an early goal, they were a bit relaxed," the coach said.

"We were worried about the weather but the overnight shower kept things cool, it was close to our home condition," said Al Ahed captain Marmar. "Maatuk is a great player and I think he was below par today. You just did not see what he can do."

"We controlled the game even with ten players because the coach knows how to deal with this situation. And we played better than Brothers," he said adding that striker Topu impressed him among the local boys.

Brothers coach Wajed Gazi admitted that his side lost to the better team. "We could not take advantage of the opposition being one man short. Actually, our preparation was inadequate. I hardly had ten players together because most of them were on national duty," Gazi said. "This result was expected because of those shortcomings."