The two teams shared the spoils in the first leg in Shanghai in their previous meeting in the knockout rounds of the competition – then it was the quarter-finals – in 2016 before Jeonbuk went on to hand the Chinese Super League side a 5-0 thrashing before going on to eventually win the title.

But Morais, who replaced long-term coach Choi Hang-hee at the start of the season, was refusing to take any cues from the past after seeing SIPG’s Wang Shenchao cancel out Moon Seon-min’s first minute opener to leave the tie delicately poised.

Moon Seon-min gave Jeonbuk a dream start when Jose Morais’ side took the lead with less than a minute on the clock only for Wang Shenchao to level the scores six minutes before half-time with a close range header.

But Moon’s goal means a goalless draw next week at the Jeonju World Cup Stadium will be enough for the 2006 and 2016 winners to advance to the last eight of the competition for the ninth time in their history.

The club from Korea Republic fought back from going a goal behind to take the win and, in the process, secure a pair of vital away goals ahead of the return meeting at Ulsan Minsu Stadium in seven days’ time.

Hwang Il-su came off the bench to bury a late winner to hand Ulsan not only the win but two crucial away goals ahead of next week’s tie in Korea Republic. Kenyu Sugimoto opened his AFC Champions League account in the first half before Joo Min-kyu restored parity ahead of the intermission.

The game pitted the two former winners of the tournament against one another for the first time in the AFC Champions League, which could be considered surprising given the frequent appearance of the clubs on this stage.

The 24-year-old had been out of action in recent weeks, missing China PR’s games against the Philippines and Tajikistan, but returned for the 2-0 victory over Shanghai SIPG on Friday and then played a crucial role in the win over domestic rivals Shandong in the 2019 AFC Champions League.

Having missed a gilt-edged opportunity early in the game, Wei put the two-time winners in front in the 35th minute and was then quick to show his appreciation to doctor Silvano Cotti, running straight to the bench to embrace the Italian.

Brazilian striker Serginho scored the only goal of the game to give the holders the upper hand going into next week’s return leg in Hiroshima and Jofuku knows his team face an uphill battle to turn the tie around despite Kashima only having a narrow advantage.

"I think the boys gave it everything they had,” he said. “We were aware of Kashima's strengths and thought that we did a good job of stopping them from creating legitimate chances.

Guangzhou managed to mute the duo for much of the 90 minutes at Tianhe Stadium on Tuesday evening as the two-time champions ran out 2-1 winners in the all-Chinese Super League encounter and a draw will now be enough for Evergrande to advance to the last eight for the sixth time in eight seasons.