Uruguayan star Diego Forlan struck a precious winner to take his new club Cerezo Osaka into the AFC Champions League round-of-16 at the expense of China’s Shandong Luneng on Wednesday.
Forlan, who turns 35 next month, but is expected to figure at this year’s World Cup finals, grabbed the decisive goal shortly after halftime as Cerezo won their final group game 2-1 to reach the knockout stages.
It was Forlan’s most telling contribution since the former Manchester United, Inter, Atletico Madrid and Internacional striker arrived in January on reported record wages of US$5.8 million a year.
Photo: AFP
Forlan has insisted his move to Japan will not hurt his chances of World Cup selection and he gave Uruguay manager Oscar Tabarez a reminder of his qualities with his second AFC Champions League goal.
Brazilian forward Vagner Love had put Shandong ahead from the penalty spot in the first half, but the Japanese visitors turned the tables with two goals within three minutes of the restart.
Yoichiro Kakitani put Cerezo level, before Forlan, receiving a cross from the left, had space on the edge of the penalty area to thump home an emphatic finish and secure their only away win in Group E.
Cerezo’s reward is a round-of-16 tie against Marcello Lippi’s defending champions Guangzhou Evergrande, who booked their place in the knockout stages on Tuesday.
Pohang Steelers, who topped Group E and frustrated Thailand’s Buriram United 0-0 on Wednesday, play fellow South Korean former winners Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in the next round.
Seoul beat Beijing Guoan 2-1 to set up a clash with Kawasaki Frontale, while Sanfrecce Hiroshima edged 10-man Central Coast Mariners 1-0 and next face Western Sydney Wanderers.
In the South Korean capital, man-of-the-match Kang Seung-jo put Seoul ahead two minutes before the break and Yoon Ju-tae doubled their advantage on 56 minutes.
Beijing’s Yu Yang pulled one back after a goalmouth scramble with two minutes remaining, but Seoul held on to finish top of Group F with three wins from six games.
They were joined by Sanfrecce Hiroshima, who reached the knockout stages for the first time after Tsukasa Shiotani’s free-kick on 72 minutes gave them a narrow win over Australia’s Central Coast Mariners.
The Australian side had Brent Griffiths sent off for a foul on Naoki Ishihara midway through the second half, before Shiotani’s dead-ball kick was deflected into the Mariners’ net.
Seoul and Sanfrecce’s wins settled a tight Group F, in which all four teams had been within just two points of each other ahead of the final games.
In Group E, already qualified Pohang Steelers repelled waves of attacks from Buriram United, who failed in their attempt to reach the round-of-16 for the second year running.
The 2008-2009 champions had the best chances when, in the second half, Yoon Jun-sung’s header was brilliantly tipped onto the bar and Moon Chang-jin had a goal ruled out for offside.
In West Asia, Qatari side El Jaish SC crashed out in unfortunate fashion after a last-minute goal by Sardor Rashidov gave Uzbekistan’s Bunyodkor PFK a 2-1 win in Doha.
El Jaish needed only a draw to become the second team to qualify from Group B, but Rashidov’s strike off a poor clearance saw the Uzbek side advance as they had scored seven goals against their Qatari rivals’ six after both teams were locked on eight points with a zero goal-difference.
Earlier, Mohammed Muntari had scored a 52nd-minute equalizer for El Jaish after Sergiy Symonenko had put the visitors ahead in the 13th minute.
Iran’s Foolad Khuzestan, who had already qualified, thrashed Saudi Arabia’s Al-Fateh SC 5-1, thanks to a hat-trick by Luciano Chimba.
In Group A, Al Jazira of the United Arab Emirates took the second spot and made the round-of-16 despite a 2-1 defeat by Saudi Arabia’s Al Shabab, who had already qualified, while Iran’s Esteghlal defeated bottom side Al Rayyan of Qatar 3-1.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier