Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Tianjin: Serbian striker Vladimir Jovancic scored twice in the second half as 2010 AFC Champions League winners Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma qualified for the last 16 of the 2012 edition as Group G winners after beating China's Tianjin Teda 3-0 on Tuesday.
Exciting Korea Republic youngster Yoon Bit-garam opened the scoring for the Korean FA Cup winners after 32 minutes at Tianjin Teda Stadium before Serbian frontman Jovancic doubled Seongnam's lead at the start of the second half.
And with Jovancic's penalty midway through the second half securing unbeaten Seongnam a second win of the campaign, Shin Tae-yong's side edged out Nagoya Grampus on goal difference to earn a home tie with the runner-up from Group E on May 29.
"Our win today is such a happy thing, and now we have to prepare for the last 16," said Shin.
"Now we are in last 16, then we will be in the last eight. It will be two battle lines all the time. We won't give up the K-league at all. No matter if it is a Chinese team or Korean team, we are all playing in two tournaments at same time.
"We have quite a few injuries and I'm working on it. Now we are in a quite good shape."
Seongnam only required a point to secure qualification but needed all three to guarantee top spot and opened the scoring in spectacular fashion 13 minutes before the break as Yoon curled home from the edge of the area after his initial corner had only been partially cleared.
The visitors added a second just three minutes into the second half as Jovancic headed home his second goal of the campaign from Lee Hyun-ho's cross.
And with 21 minutes remaining Jovancic picked himself up after being fouled by Tianjin defender He Yang inside the area to add Seongnam's third from the penalty spot.
"The ACL is officially over for us. The good thing is that we learned a lot from the last six AFC Champions League games," said Tianjin coach Josip Kuze.
"I think we had a not bad first half, especially the defence. Our opponent is a strong side and their quality of ball control is very good and so it was a big challenge for us.
"After the first goal, the match result was kind of decided because it was going to be extremely difficult to comeback. When we conceded a goal again in the second half, the result was more obvious.
"But I still want to say, we learned a lot from those AFC Champions League matches, including match preparation, line-up picking-up and player selecting."
Photo: WSG