Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Hiroshima: Coach Hajime Moriyasu praised his players as J.League champions Sanfrecce Hiroshima finally ended an eight-game losing streak in the AFC Champions League with their 2-1 win over 2013 finalists FC Seoul on Wednesday.
Following a goalless first half, Tsukasa Shiotani netted the winner with 12 minutes remaining after FC Seoul substitute Rafael Costa (Rafael Costa dos Santos) had put the Korea Republic side back on level terms following Yojiro Takahagi’s opener in the Group F clash.
The result lifts the J.League side off the bottom of the group and puts them back into the reckoning for the knockout stages after they drew their home opener with Beijing Guoan and suffered a shock loss to A-League side Central Coast Mariners last week.
“It was good result as we collected three points with this win. These points will help us move on in order to qualify for the next stage,” said coach Moriyasu.
“We knew FC Seoul are a strong side and this would be a tough game, and each of our players ran hard and fought hard to do better than their opponent in one-on-one situations. In addition, we had better possession and could attack with our style. Their efforts brought us this win.
“I’m also happy with the fact that we changed around our team and still could produce the win. I was having a positive feeling in the AFC Champions League, and the win today can bring us big confidence.”
Meanwhile FC Seoul, who had been in the top spot after Matchday Two, lost the chance to create some breathing room and have been dragged back into a fight for two qualification places.
However the K-League Classic side’s coach, Choi Yong-soo, is already focusing on their return tie against Hiroshima in a fortnight’s time in Seoul.
“Not only for our opponents but also for us, it was physically a tough game. But we still have a home game against them, and we want to produce a best result there,” he said.
“As we had a short time to prepare for this game, we were going to see how things would develop in the first half and attack in the second half. But Hiroshima showed better organisational skills as they have been working on that longer than we have.
“I’ll spend time on making an analysis on this game to prepare for the next game against them at home.”