OSAKA, Japan: Pohang Steelers became the first East Asian team to reach the AFC Champions League last 16 yesterday as an upset and a late own goal elsewhere set up a tense final round of group games.
The 2009 winners from South Korea beat Uruguay star Diego Forlan’s Cerezo Osaka 2-0 away to clamber into the knock-out stages, leaving their Group E rivals all locked on five points each.
Defending champions Guangzhou Evergrande missed their chance to reach the eliminators on Tuesday, meaning it will be all to play for in the East Asian zone as the group stage wraps up next week.
Australia’s Central Coast Mariners were cruelly felled by a stoppage-time own goal as they slid off the top of Group F to lie level with Beijing Guoan and Sanfrecce Hiroshima with six points.
Beijing Guoan scored twice in five second-half minutes against Hiroshima, but then Naoki Ishihara outdid them with a brace in just three minutes to earn a pulsating 2-2 draw in the Chinese capital.
And Thailand’s Buriram United shocked Shandong Luneng 1-0 to score their first win of the competition and draw level with the Chinese team and Cerezo on five points in Group E.
Lee Myung-Joo and Kim Seung-Dae scored either side of half-time for Pohang to earn their third win of the competition and establish an unbridgeable six-point gap at the top of the group.
In Gosford, the Mariners doggedly repulsed last year’s runners-up FC Seoul, but their rearguard action was undone a minute into injury time when skipper John Hutchinson turned a cross into his own net.
“The first thing we’ll do when we walk into the dressing room is put our arms around ‘Hutch’ and pick him up,” said Mariners coach Phil Moss after the 1-0 defeat.
“He’s a fantastic Mariner on and off the field and he doesn’t deserve that.”
Beijing went ahead against Hiroshima in dubious circumstances when Peter Utaka’s shot appeared to come off Shao Jiayi’s arm and crept over the line in a goal credited to the Chinese international. Shao then turned creator with a glorious no-look flick to set up explosive Ecuadorian Joffre Guerron for Beijing’s second, in what appeared enough for victory.
But bleach-blond forward Ishihara had other ideas and fired two similar goals, both from poorly defended crosses from the left, within three minutes to earn a vital point for Hiroshima.
Meanwhile, FC Seoul leapfrogged Central Coast Mariners to the top of Group F through an own goal in stoppage time in their AFC Champions League match yesterday. Last season’s ACL runners-up looked headed for a scoreless draw in Gosford until Mariners skipper John Hutchinson put Cha Du-Ri’s cross past his goalkeeper Liam Reddy.
It was a deserved win for the South Koreans, who dominated the second half after the home side had failed to convert their first-half chances.
Reddy had defied FC Seoul with a series of magnificent saves, but in the end it took one of his team-mates to score the elusive goal for the South Koreans.
Seoul’s Brazilian midfielder Rafael forced a fingertip save from Reddy in the first half, while Cha Du-Ri nearly broke the crossbar with a fierce drive as the rebound narrowly failed to cross the line.
Sergio Escudero was denied by Reddy on the hour and the keeper again came to his side’s aid as Yun Il-Lok bore down on goal.
Reddy then prevented Go Yo-Han from scoring a seemingly certain goal as the Mariners increasingly found themselves on the back foot. FC Seoul now have the edge heading into next week’s final group game against Beijing Guoan at home, while the Mariners must beat back-to-back J-League champions Sanfrecce Hiroshima in Japan to have any chance of advancing out of the group. AFP
