Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Yokohama: Reigning champions Guangzhou Evergrande had Alessandro Diamanti to thank once again as Marcello Lippi’s side drew 1-1 with Yokohama F Marinos in Group G of the AFC Champions League on Wednesday.
The Italy international scored with a fine free kick seven minutes before the halftime break to cancel out Jin Hanato’s opener for the home side as Guangzhou moved on to four points from their opening two games.
Diamanti scored twice in the come-from-behind win over Melbourne Victory on Matchday 1 and was on hand again to rescue his team against a Marinos side that made a host of changes after their 3-0 loss against Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in the opening round of games.
Brazilian veteran full back Dutra (Antônio Monteiro Dutra) was left out of the squad completely by coach Yasuhiro Higuchi along with Sho Ito and Yuta Mikado while Japan international defender Yuzo Kurihara was relegated to the bench.
Into the starting line-up came Shohei Ogura, Shingo Hyodo, Hanato and Brazilian defender Fabio (Fabio Aguiar da Silva) as Marinos sought to freshen up a side that has won both of their opening games in this year’s J.League campaign.
It was Hanato who caused Guangzhou the most problems early in the game, the forward shooting from just inside the penalty area after 11 minutes but Zeng Cheng dealt with the effort comfortably.
Ten minutes later, though, the 23-year-old was celebrating putting Marinos in front when he capitalised on the Evergrande defence’s inability to clear Shunsuke Nakamura’s free kick and he smashed the ball home.
In the 27th minute Hanato could have doubled the J.League side’s lead, only to find the hands of Zeng when he could have done better.
Guangzhou steadily exerted their influence as the half drew towards its close and, with seven minutes remaining before the break, the reigning champions drew level thanks to a piece of magic from Diamanti.
The Italian claimed his third goal in two AFC Champions Leageu games when he struck a perfectly-flighted left foot free kick from just outside the area that curled and dipped over the wall before crossing the line via the underside of the crossbar with Tetsuya Enomoto left rooted to the spot.
The goal was no more than Guangzhou deserved and Lippi’s side could have taken the lead with just seconds left in the half when Elkeson (Elkeson de Oliveira Cardoso) – so often the star for Evergrande in the knockout stages of last year’s competition – struck a weak effort directly at Enomoto after being put in on goal by Huang Bowen.
A scrappy start to the second half gave way to more chances at both ends, with Elkeson seeing his long range drive pushed over the bar by Enomoto while Nakamura forced Zeng into a sharp save, diving to left.
Zhang Linpeng had a great chance to give Guangzhou all three points with seven minutes remaining, but Enomoto was on hand again to keep his side level with a fine stop as he dropped low and to his left as the two sides shared the spoils.