With injuries to superstar attacker Talisca and veteran forward Gao Lin having ruled the pair out since mid-May, the two-time AFC Champions League winners were relieved to see Wei show no ill-effects from his recent lay-off and help Guangzhou secure an important advantage in their last 16 showdown with countrymen Shandong.

The 24-year-old had been out of action in recent weeks, missing China PR’s games against the Philippines and Tajikistan, but returned for the 2-0 victory over Shanghai SIPG on Friday and then played a crucial role in the win over domestic rivals Shandong in the 2019 AFC Champions League.

Having missed a gilt-edged opportunity early in the game, Wei put the two-time winners in front in the 35th minute and was then quick to show his appreciation to doctor Silvano Cotti, running straight to the bench to embrace the Italian.

Guangzhou managed to mute the duo for much of the 90 minutes at Tianhe Stadium on Tuesday evening as the two-time champions ran out 2-1 winners in the all-Chinese Super League encounter and a draw will now be enough for Evergrande to advance to the last eight for the sixth time in eight seasons.

Wei Shihao put two-time champions Guangzhou Evergrande in front 10 minutes before halftime but a stunning strike from Zhang Chi midway through the second period earned Shandong an away goal ahead of next week’s clash in Jinan.

But Yang’s effort in the 80th minute which took a deflection off Shandong defender Zheng Zheng means Guangzhou are 90 minutes away from booking their place in the last eight of the competition for the sixth time in eight seasons.

Sanfrecce had entered the tie at Kashima Soccer Stadium on the back of a five-match winning run in the Continental tournament, but on 24 minutes the hosts' Brazilian star Serginho rediscovered his golden touch at this phase of the competition to net his sixth goal in seven knockout stage appearances.

The away side responded to going behind and would ultimately dominate possesion (60 percent to 40 percent) as well as have more efforts on goal than their hosts in the match, but they were unable to make their chances count.

The late sending off of midfielder Sho Inagaki also compounded matters on a difficult night for Morishima and his teammates.

The two teams shared the spoils in the first leg in Shanghai in their previous meeting in the knockout rounds of the competition – then it was the quarter-finals – in 2016 before Jeonbuk went on to hand the Chinese Super League side a 5-0 thrashing before going on to eventually win the title.

But Morais, who replaced long-term coach Choi Hang-hee at the start of the season, was refusing to take any cues from the past after seeing SIPG’s Wang Shenchao cancel out Moon Seon-min’s first minute opener to leave the tie delicately poised.