The midfielder celebrated his first appearance in the competition in eight years with a first-half brace, before Kim Kee-hee added a third as Kim Do-hoon’s side turned domestic disappointment into Doha delight two weeks after losing the Korean FA Cup Final.

Zhu Jianrong scored a late consolation goal for Shenhua, who drop to third in the Group F standings on three points, one behind joint leaders Ulsan and FC Tokyo.

Appearing for the second time in Group F, and the first time in the competition’s new centralised format, the Korea Republic side were far too strong for their Chinese opponents, with Yoon Bit-garam scoring twice to take the sting out of the contest before half-time.

While Shanghai had already played and won against Perth Glory in Doha on Wednesday, Ulsan’s impressive showing came in their first fixture in Qatar, and Kim had only minor criticisms of what had been an excellent resumption of his team’s Asian campaign.

Goals from Fernando and A Lan helped Beijing secure an important 2-1 win over Korea Republic’s FC Seoul on Saturday, taking their tally to the maximum six points from two matches in the competition.

With their next two matches against a Melbourne Victory side which hasn’t played competitively since August, the team from the Chinese capital can already see a potential path to the knockout stage.

The two tacticians are long-time friends, having both worked at FC Porto around the turn of the century.

They have since both gone on to win league titles in Asia, with Perreira guiding Shanghai SIPG to their first-ever Chinese Super League title and Morais lifting back-to-back K League 1 titles with Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.

Tell us in the polls below whether your favourite team will advance to the next round of the Qualifiers as Asia looks to build on the record five teams at the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018.

There is still much to do on the Road to Qatar 2022 in the second round of the Asian Qualifiers and the remaining matchdays will determine the 12 teams who will advance to the third round of the Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, which will also confirm their tickets to the AFC Asian Cup China 2023.

Tell us in the polls below whether your favourite team will advance to the next round of the Qualifiers as Asia looks to build on the record five teams at the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018.

There is still much to do on the Road to Qatar 2022 in the second round of the Asian Qualifiers and the remaining matchdays will determine the 12 teams who will advance to the third round of the Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, which will also confirm their tickets to the AFC Asian Cup China 2023.

Maldivian star Ashfaq's solo goal - one of five he scored in that match - for New Radiant against Persibi Bojonegoro in the 2013 AFC Cup saw him defeat Hanoi FC's Vietnam international Nguyen Quang Hai in the semi-final.

Ashfaq polled 54.68 % of the votes to see of Quang Hai's challenge.