Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Guiyang: A goal from Kawasaki Frontale captain Kengo Nakamura was enough to give his side a 1-0 victory over China’s Guizhou Renhe who can now no longer qualify for the knockout stages of the AFC Champions League after their defeat to the J-League side at Guiyang Olympic Centre Stadium on Tuesday.
In a match that visitors controlled for long spells, Kawasaki scored the Group H game’s only goal through Nakamura after he cooly finished off a well-worked move on the 37th minute.
Guizhou’s attempts to draw level where hampered by first the dismissal of captain Sun Jihai on 79 minutes and then the ejection of Zvjezdan Misimovic in stoppage time which saw them down to nine men when the final whistle blew.
With Western Sydney Wanderers shocking 2012 winners Ulsan Hyundai in Korea by a 2-0 scoreline in the group’s other game, Tuesday’s results see the A-League side join Kawasaki on top of the group with nine points each, while Ulsan are third on seven and Guizhou unable to make up the difference on four points with a game remaining.
Although Guizhou knew before kick-off against Kawasaki that nothing but a win would do, the first half began in muted fashion with neither size able to create a clear-cut chance in the opening half hour.
But with eight minutes of the half remaining Kawasaki’s skipper finished off the game’s best move as Kentaro Moriya played in Yoshito Okubo inside the penalty box and the striker laid off the ball for Nakamura and the playmaker fired home a left-footed drive past Zhang Lie.
After the interval Guizhou began to grow into the game as Bosnian star Misimovic began to become more influential.
On 57 minutes the 31-year-old nearly levelled the scores in spectacular fashion as he teed himself up for a stunning volley from distance that an underworked Yohei Nishibe did very well to turn behind with a full-length dive to his right.
Misimovic again when close four minutes after the hour mark with a shot from just outside the area but he again found the Kawasaki custodian equal to the effort with an alert save low to his right.
For the visitors Nakamura was a constant outlet and threat and he nearly conjured up a second for his side on 68 minutes when he slipped in Jun Kanakubo but the midfielder’s powerful shot from close range was too close to Zhang Lie who parried the ball away from danger.
With tempers mounting along with the tension as the game began to draw to a close, Sun received his second yellow card of the match to get his marching orders with 11 minutes remaining.
And Misimovic’s frustrating afternoon went from bad to worse as an off the ball incident with Yusuke Igawa earned him a second yellow from referee Banjar Al Dosari and his side played out the final actions of the match with nine men.
Photo: WSG