Weekly Stats Wrap

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.

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.

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.

Played at the Kawasaki Todoroki Stadium, it was the home side who struck first when Brazilian defender Elsinho finished neatly from the edge of the area just before the half hour mark.

Their lead lasted less than 10 minutes, however, after Besart Berisha drew the visitors level after poking home George’s corner.

Ten minutes into the second half and Kawasaki Frontale took the lead once again after a lovely piece of interplay on the edge of the area. Ryota Oshima’s defence splitting pass found Yu Kobayashi, who squared the ball across the box for Kyohei Noborizato to tap into an open net.

That looked to have been enough for the home side until the referee pointed to the spot in stoppage time when substitute Christian Theoharous was fouled in the box by Tatsuki Nara.

With 92 minutes having already elapsed, George stepped up to the spot and made no mistake to earn a vital point for his side.

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.