ACL MD4 - Group E: Jiangsu FC 1-2 FC Tokyo

FC Tokyo opened the scoring on 30 minutes at the Olympic Sports Center through captain Morishige before a penalty from Brazilian striker Jo drew Jiangsu level shortly after.

But Morishige’s second of the night inside the final 10 minutes put the visitors back in front before Li Ang was sent-off two minutes later as FC Tokyo moved to the top of the standings ahead of Korea Republic’s Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, who were beaten 3-2 by Vietnam’s Becamex Binh Duong earlier on Wednesday.

“Although I was happy with the first half performance, we were quite lucky in the second half in a very difficult away game,” said FC Tokyo coach Hiroshi Jofuku.

“Our players showed good concentration and implemented our game plan well. We were able to negate Jiangsu’s key players with our tactics.

“If we can continue to keep this level of performance up, I believe we can even make it to the final of the competition.”

The opening period was played at a frenetic pace in a physical match-up between the two sides, but little was created in the way of clear-cut opportunities.

This was until Morishige broke the deadlock on the half-hour mark as Ryoya Ogawa’s corner broke to the Japan defender lurking on the edge of the penalty area and his powerful shot fizzed into the bottom left-hand corner of Zhang Sipeng’s goal to put the visitors ahead.

But just three minutes later the scores were level as Jo coolly converted from the spot after compatriot Ramires had been brought down inside the penalty area by Kento Hashimoto.

And Jiangsu could have gone into half-time ahead as Alex Teixeira surged through on goal, but a fine save Yota Akimoto kept the Brazilian and the scores remained level at the break.

Jiangsu came out strongly after the restart and Jo volleyed wide from inside the area after five minutes before Teixeira’s speculative effort from distance failed to trouble Akimoto in the FC Tokyo goal.

Despite controlling the majority of the possession, though, the hosts were struggling to hit the target as Li saw his free-kick from 25 yards curl the wrong side of the right post just before the hour mark.

And after another Jiangsu free-kick, this time from Ji Xiang, deflected narrowly wide with 15 minutes remaining, Tokyo almost went back in front when substitute Takuma Abe made space for himself on the edge of the area before curling just over on 80 minutes.

But FC Tokyo did retake the lead in the 83rd minute, though, when Morishige’s side-footed effort from Takuji Yonemoto’s cut-back corner deflected off Australian Trent Sainsbury and into the back of the net.

Then with five minutes remaining Li was shown a straight red card for a late challenge on Kota Mizunuma as the hosts finished the game with 10 men.

“I am quite disappointed with our performance in this game, and we particularly didn’t play well in the first half,” said Jiangsu coach Dan Petrescu.

“We had some problems in defending set-pieces, which our opponents took advantage of, and we also failed to convert our chances.

“We still have two matches to go and I believe if we can do well in our remaining games we can still make the last 16.”

Photo: Lagardère Sports