AFC Champions League final round: Guangzhou, Shandong Taishan end the AFC Champions League journey with defeats
2022-05-01 16:54:34Source: Xinhuanet
Xinhua News Agency, Bangkok, April 30 (Reporters Lin Hao, Zhu Wei) Guangzhou team and Shandong Taishan team ushered in their final games of the 2022 AFC Champions League group stage on the 30th. Guangzhou team lost 0:1 to Japan’s Kawasaki Frontale, Shandong Taishan lost 0:5 to another Japanese team Urawa Red Diamonds, both ended the AFC Champions League journey with losses. The two teams, who both played with young lineups, were eliminated at the bottom of their respective groups and failed to win a single victory.
In Group I, Guangzhou faced last season’s J League champion Kawasaki Frontale. In the first match between the two sides in the group stage, the Guangzhou team lost by a score of 0:8. In this game, the Guangzhou team once again conceded a goal at the beginning of the game. In the 14th minute, the Kawasaki Frontale team cooperated in the middle, and Chinenqing received the ball, turned and broke into the penalty area to take a low shot and scored the ball. The Kawasaki Frontal Team has always had the advantage since then and created many chances, but the Guangzhou Team defended tenaciously and did not concede any more goals. The score of 0:1 was maintained until the end. This is also the smallest defeat of the Guangzhou team in the AFC Champions League group stage.
Guangzhou team coach Pan Yonghe said after the game that the game was very tough. The players cherished the game according to the requirements and persisted until the last minute. The performance is worthy of recognition.
In another match in this group, Johor Bahru Malaysia defeated South Korea’s Ulsan Hyundai 2:1 with an own goal in the final stoppage time, beating Japan and South Korea to win the top spot in the group and advance directly to the round of 16. Guangzhou team lost all 6 group matches, conceded a total of 24 goals and did not score a goal.
In Group F, Shandong Taishan team faced Urawa Red Diamonds. The Shandong team was scored three goals in the first half and conceded two goals in the second half, and finally lost 0:5 in a rainy battle, replicating the score when the two teams met for the first time in the group stage. In this group, South Korea’s Daegu FC and Urawa Red Diamonds advanced to the round of 16 with the first place in the group and the second place in the three best-performing groups in East Asia respectively. Shandong team had 1 draw and 5 losses in the group stage, scoring 2 goals and conceding 24 goals.
Shandong team coach Yu Yuanwei said in summarizing this AFC Champions League journey that the team performed poorly at first and lacked confidence. Later, there were some improvements and improvements, but it was indeed too far behind its opponents and did not play its own role. The level requires hard training and efforts to improve.