A fantastic four-goal salvo from Brazilian forward Ricardo Goulart led Guangzhou Evergrande to a rollercoaster 5-3 win over Jeju United in their Group G Matchday Three clash at Tianhe Stadium on Tuesday.

The 2015 AFC Champions League MVP and Top Scorer impressively netted all of his tally in the second half of the tie, helping spark another magical night of continental football in southern China. The pick of the bunch was a delicate chipped effort, which saw saw him nominated for the Allianz Goal of the Week.

The match loomed as a heavyweight battle between the top two teams in Group E, but Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors brushed aside their Chinese opponents in comprehensive fashion.

TOO HOT TO HANDLE

Kim Shin-wook’s size and aerial presence caused a constant threat throughout the night for the Tianjin Quanjian defence. His opening goal came via a header, and came just minutes after he had a goal disallowed – also a header – for offside.

His aerial threat meant the home side’s wingers and midfielders could whip the ball in from wide areas confident that their man would get on the end of it.

In total the target man managed five shots, four of which were on target, as shown on his shooting map below.

Persepolis were calm and collected as they beat a young Al Wasl side 2-0 in Tehran, with goals from Farshad Ahmadzadeh and Ali Alipour enough to put them in second place with six points. The Emirati side were unable to threaten in the absence of their top two goal scorers Fabio de Lima and Caio Canedo.

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Al Wasl attempt to nullify Persepolis with a new formation

With foreign duo Lima and Canedo missing, and Ronaldo Mendes on the bench, Rodolfo Arruabarrena had to come up with a different plan to get something against Persepolis. This involved Al Wasl using a new 5-3-2 formation.

After a slow start, the game came to life midway through the first half with a flurry of chances for the home side.

After Yeom Ki-hun was fouled on the edge of the box, Dejan Damjanovic smashed the free-kick towards the top right-hand corner but Li Shuai pushed the shot wide.

Damjanovic should then have opened the scoring when Ki-hun’s cross found him just outside the six-yard box but the Montenegrin striker shot weakly at Li Shuai.

Six minutes from half-time, Ki-hun had a good effort from 20 yards out but Li Shuai made another fine save.

The home side’s pressure finally paid off two minutes into the second half. Ki-hun’s free-kick from the right was punched clear by Li Shuai and Lee Ki-je met the ball on the half-volley and struck it firmly through a crowd of players and into the net from 25 yards out.

Suwon seemed to be cruising but were rocked in the 68th minute when No Dong-geon had to pull off an excellent save from Fredy Guarin’s powerful shot to preserve their lead.

But Shenhua soon had another opportunity to equalise when Aidi Fulang Xisi went down under Cristovam’s challenge in the penalty area. Giovanni Moreno netted the resulting spot-kick to make it 1-1 with 19 minutes remaining. 

Waguininho missed a great opportunity to win it for the hosts in the final minute of added time but stabbed the ball wide.

Suwon travel to face Shenhua in China next week just one point ahead of their rivals, as both sides’ chances of progress remain very much alive.

 

The A-League side kicked off without two key players in the starting line-up, in the shape of Brazilian striker Bobo and Serbian playmaker Milos Ninkovic, and struggled to create chances ahead of the interval.

And, indeed, with five minutes of the half remaining, it was the Japanese visitors who broke the deadlock.

The Sydney FC defence failed to deal with Ryota Nagaki’s corner from the right and Yuma Suzuki’s subsequent shot-cum-cross was re-directed past Andrew Redmayne by Shoma Doi at the back post.

Adrian Mierzejewski could have tied the scores just after the hour-mark after a fine pull-back from Alex Brosque, but his sliding effort was too close to Hitoshi Sogahata who pulled off a smart save.

And the Polish star was denied again by Sogahata shortly after following good link up play from second half substitute Bobo and Brosque.

But it was Kashima who again found the net and had the final say, once more from a set-piece. Defender Naomichi Ueda headed firmly past Redmayne after Shuto Yamamoto had flicked on another Nagaki corner.

Kashima will host Sydney FC in the return leg at Kashima Soccer Stadium next week with the Australian side desperately looking to get their first win of the continental campaign to remain in with a chance of reaching the Round of 16.

 

The visitors came off the blocks racing and found the back of the net just three minutes into the game after captain Rodrigo Tabata's pass found Moutouali who fired a powerful strike from outside the box that went in off the post to put Al Rayyan in front.

Al Hilal regrouped quickly and came close to levelling the score in the ninth minute when  Achraf Bencharki's close range shot from a narrow angle was blocked by defender Ahmed Yasser.

Al Rayyan thought they had doubled their lead just before the half hour mark when Abderazak Hamdallah beat the goalkeeper, only to see his goal ruled out for offside.

The Saudi side started the second half brighter and in the 58th minute, Bencharki sent an intelligent pass into the box for overlapping left-back Al Zori who struck with venom into the top right corner to earn his side a point on the night.

The 2017 runners-up remain without a win in the group and will next travel to Doha to face Al Rayyan, who have now drawn all their three games.