Jiangsu in jeopardy as SIPG soars to top
Print Edition
MASATO Morishige scored twice as FC Tokyo stunned mega-rich Chinese club Jiangsu Suning 2-1 to race to the top of their AFC Champions League group last night.
Morishige’s double, either side of a penalty by former Manchester City striker Jo, pushed Jiangsu down to third in Group E with two games left in another mixed week for Chinese Super League clubs.
Big-spending Jiangsu twice broke the Asian transfer record this year in hiring Chelsea’s Ramires and Teixeira from Shakhtar Donetsk, both Brazilians, but it has only one win from four games in the continental showpiece.
The result allowed FC Tokyo to leapfrog both Jiangsu and Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, the 2006 Asian champion from South Korea, which finished with nine men in a shock 2-3 loss to Vietnam’s Binh Duong.
Title-holder Guangzhou Evergrande of China is on the verge of an early exit after its defeat to Urawa Red Diamonds on Tuesday, but Sven-Goran Eriksson’s Shanghai SIPG beat another Japanese side Gamba Osaka 2-0 to go top of Group G.
Morishige thumped in Tokyo’s opener on the half-hour after Jiangsu failed to clear a corner, before Jo converted a debatable penalty given by Australian referee Ben Williams for a foul on Ramires.
But Morishige settled a tense encounter in the 83rd minute when he belted another shot straight from a corner and it deflected in at the near post.
In Osaka, second-half goals from Wu Lei and Lu Wenjun made it three wins out of four for SIPG as the Shanghai club tightened its grip on Group G.
Playmaker Conca nearly fired SIPG ahead in the first half and it was no surprise when the visitors took the lead with a well-worked team goal on 66 minutes.
Argentina’s Conca fed Wu on the edge of the box and the forward exchanged a one-two with Lu before he planted the return ball past Gamba goalkeeper Masaaki Higashiguchi.
SIPG cashed in on errors in the Gamba box six minutes later when Wu’s shot was parried by the goalkeeper and only half-cleared to Lu, who swung and blasted it home first-time.
Elsewhere, Binh Duong revived its hopes of reaching the last 16 when Nguyen Anh Duc’s late penalty against Jeonbuk handed the Vietnamese champion its first win in Group E.
Jeonbuk finished the bad-tempered game with nine men after both Kim Chang-soo and Kim Hyung-il were sent off as the visitors squandered a 2-1 first-half lead.
Nguyen scored from the spot in the 12th before Jeonbuk took charge with goals from Lee Jong-ho and Han Kyo-won, only for Christian Amougou to make it 2-2 on 35 minutes.
And Nguyen held his nerve to bury his second spot-kick two minutes from time, resurrecting Binh Duong’s campaign in what is now a tight Group E.
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