The hosts struggled to break down a stubborn Buriram backline in the first half, before Makino opened the scoring five minutes after the interval and Hashioka – making his first ever appearance in the competition – added two late goals to finally see off the Buriram challenge.

The result marked a winning return to the AFC Champions League for Oswaldo de Oliveira’s side, whose last appearance was the second leg of the 2017 final when they defeated Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal 2-1 on aggregate to become two-time winners.

In their first appearance in the Continental showpiece since they lifted the title in 2017, the home side started brightly and had a golden chance to open the scoring after just 10 minutes when Yosuke Kashiwagi’s cross found Andrew Nabbout unmarked in the box, but the Australian attacker couldn’t keep his effort down.

The 39-year-old regained his position as the tournament’s all-time top scorer when his 37th strike to put Jeonbuk 2-1 ahead before he set up the home side’s killer third.

The visitors started confidently and created the first chance in the seventh minute when Cedric Bakambu fired wide after a through ball from Piao Cheng.

The former Southampton striker, making his first appearance in the competition since the 2016 quarter-finals, was the hero for his side as goals in either half earned a valuable point on the road for the Chinese Super League team.

But having taken a first-half lead, Pelle was disappointed Shandong couldn’t stay in the ascendancy and come away with all three points, especially after they spurned a number of late chances.

The home side had 17 shots to Ulsan’s 11 and controlled 56 percent of the possession, but in blustery conditions at Jubilee Stadium in Sydney’s south, the Sky Blues failed to convert any of their chances and extended their goalless run at home in the competition to four matches.

After a scoreless first half against the Iranian side, Benatia headed home the first goal as the hour approached to ease any opening-day nerves, before Youssef El Arabi and substitute Ali Afif both got on the scoresheet as the Qatari champions got off to a perfect start.

For Benatia, who was making his AFC Champions League debut after joining from Juventus, the game brought back memories of when he last faced Iranian opposition, back in June.

Morocco dominated against the Islamic Republic of Iran in their opening match at the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018, only to concede deep into stoppage time and suffer an agonising 1-0 defeat.

Injures to a number of key players – including Yuma Suzuki and Leo Silva - forced Oiwa to field a number of young players for his side’s first game in the group phase of the 2019 campaign, but the eight-time J.League champions still picked up all three points in the Group E clash with a 2-1 win.

“This is the first match of the AFC Champions League and we won the three points, that’s all we can take from this game,” said Oiwa. “You never know what’s going to happen in any game in this tournament and that’s something I told our players."