By Michael Church
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Japan’s Vissel Kobe moved top of the standings in the eastern zone of the Asian Champions League Elite on Tuesday as the J-League champions ended Gwangju FC’s perfect start to the league phase with a 2-0 win in Kobe.
Taisei Miyashiro and Daiju Sasaki struck to snap the South Korean side’s three-game winning streak and climb above Lee Jung-hyo’s team into pole position in the table at the halfway point of the opening round of the competition.
Kawasaki Frontale picked up their second win of the campaign with a 3-1 victory over Chinese Super League champions Shanghai Port while Central Coast Mariners scored in injury time to secure a 2-2 draw with Shanghai Shenhua in Gosford.
Malaysia’s Johor Darul Ta’zim, meanwhile, inflicted a 3-0 defeat on Ulsan HD in Johor to leave the South Korean champions rooted to the bottom of the standings without a point.
The top eight finishers in the 12-team standings in both east and west Asia advance to March’s knockout rounds, with the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final all due to be played on a centralised basis in Saudi Arabia in April and May.
Yokohama F Marinos, last year’s runners-up, take on Thailand’s Buriram United on Wednesday while three-times champions Pohang Steelers host Shandong Taishan from China.
Kobe claimed their third win in four games with the victory over Gwangju as Miyashiro put Takayuki Yoshida’s team in front from the spot three minutes into first half injury time.
Sasaki doubled the lead nine minutes into the second half with a close-range finish to take Kobe one point clear of the Koreans at the top of the standings.
Gwangju drop to second with JDT moving into third while Shanghai Shenhua sit fourth having thrown away a two-goal lead against Australian champions Central Coast to draw.
Andre Luis and Yu Hanchao had given Leonid Slutsky’s side a two-goal lead with strikes in the 50th and 64th minutes respectively but, after Sabit Ngor halved the deficit, Bailey Brandtman struck deep in injury time for the hosts.
The point was Central Coast’s first in four games and lifts them off the bottom with Ulsan now propping up the standings without a point following their loss to JDT.
Arif Aiman put the Malaysian hosts in front having been gifted possession after eight minutes and Oscar Arribas doubled the lead with a deflected shot midway through the second half.
Bergson scored the third late on as JDT moved onto seven points at the halfway stage.
Kawasaki secured their win thanks to quick-fire goals from Akihiro Ienaga and Yusuke Segawa in the 12th and 13th minutes against Shanghai Port, who retained the Chinese Super League title at the weekend.
Sai van Wermeskerken added a third in the 33rd, with Mathias Vargas’ 83rd minute goal for Shanghai a mere consolation.
(Reporting by Michael Church, Editing by Ken Ferris)
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