Shandong Luneng players celebrate a goal during one of their 2015 AFC Champions League matches. (Photo : Getty Images)
Chinese Super League club Shandong Luneng Taishan FC completely outclassed the hard-fighting eleven of I-League champions Mohun Bagan Athletic Club during the two teams' match in the preliminary round 2 of the 2016 AFC Champions League qualifying playoff competitions at the Jinan Olympic Sports Center Stadium in Shandong, China on Tuesday.
Shandong Luneng blanked their rivals from India, 6-0, with a double from Team Dragon striker Yang Xu and single goals from Argentine winger Walter Montillo, Brazilian striker Diego Tardelli, Chinese defender Zheng Zheng, and Chinese attacking midfielder Wang Yongpo.
Montillo opened the scoring at the 23rd minute while Tardelli's goal came five minutes before the halftime break as the Orange Fighters went up by two goals during the interval, as reported by the International Business Times.
Yang then scored two straight times at the 55th and 69th minutes to completely take the game away from the visitors and give Shandong a 4-0 lead.
Goals from Zheng and Wang at the 76th and 88th sealed the blowout victory for the Chinese side as they went on to advance in the playoff round against A-League's Adelaide United FC in a match scheduled on Feb. 9, Tuesday next week, at the Hindmarsh Stadium in Adelaide, South Australia.
Shandong also paraded its new manager, Brazilian Mano Menezes, in the match.
The 53-year-old former Seleção head coach had expressed concern before the match, saying that "I am under a lot of pressure. We can't afford to lose this qualifier, as the game is a knock-out one," via Goal.
"We did make full preparations for the qualifier, as it is our first crucial game. However, the game is different from the warm-up job, we will check out that. Set-pieces are important ways of scoring, so I attach great importance to that," Menezes told reporters after he was asked about their strategy, which the team perfectly executed.
Mohun Bagan advanced in the preliminary round 2 after beating Singapore's Tampine Rovers in their preliminary round 1 game, 3-1, at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata, India on Jan. 27.
"You know that we have very little time to adjust to the conditions over there (in China) but it will be a great challenge and a great opportunity for Mohun Bagan to play against the Chinese standards, which if you go by the rankings of FIFA is much higher than ours," said Mariners manager Sanjoy Sen before the match. "The cold weather may influence our performance. We will try our level best, we will not give any excuses."
