By Michael Church
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Ulsan HD’s struggles in the Asian Champions League Elite continued on Wednesday as Taisei Miyashiro scored twice to earn Japan’s Vissel Kobe a 2-0 win that leaves the two-times champions rooted to the bottom of the league phase standings.
Ulsan, Asian champions in 2012 and 2020, have yet to pick up a point in the first three games of the revamped competition and sit in last place in the 12-team standings.
The top eight finishers in the league phase in both east and west Asia advance to the knockout rounds in March and Ulsan trail leaders Gwangju FC by nine points with their fellow K-League side having won all three of their opening fixtures.
Kobe’s win in South Korea takes the J-League champions to within two points of Gwangju with Takayuki Yoshida’s side punishing Ulsan’s second half sloppiness in midfield.
Miyashiro put his side in front three minutes after the interval having dispossessed home midfielder Yun Il-lok close to the penalty area and his low shot beat Jo Hyeon-woo to his left.
Yoshinori Muto set up Kobe’s second in the 73rd minute when the former Newcastle United man also capitalised on slack play by the hosts before clipping over a cross from the left that Miyashiro nodded in.
Shanghai Shenhua, meanwhile, moved up to fourth in the standings as Leonid Slutsky’s side handed 10-man Kawasaki Frontale a 2-0 defeat in Shanghai.
Brazilian winger Marcinho was sent off in the fifth minute for a dangerous tackle on Ibrahim Amadou and the Japanese side struggled as a result, with Wang Haijian putting Shenhua in front with a deflected strike in the 24th minute.
However, it took until the third minute of stoppage time for the Chinese Super League leaders to put the seal on the win when Andre Luis picked himself up off the turf after a foul by Yuichi Maruyama to score his side’s second from the penalty spot.
(Reporting by Michael Church, Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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