Kim Junsu of Pohang Steelers in action against Paulinho of Guangzhou Evergrande during the AFC Champions League match at Guangzhou Tianhe Sport Center in Guangzhou, China, on Feb. 24, 2016. (Photo : Getty Images)
Defending champs Guangzhou Evergrande were off to a rough start in keeping their AFC Champions League title on Wednesday with a goalless draw against South Korea’s Pohang Steelers at Tianhe Sport Center in Guangzhou.
Guangzhou, who beat U.A.E.'s Al Ahli 1-0 on aggregate in the 2015 AFC Champions League final to claim its second continental title in three years, held the advantage against playoff winners Pohang but failed to find a breakthrough, China.org.cn reported on Thursday.
With Japan's Urawa Red Diamonds earlier defeating Sydney FC 2-0, Guangzhou finds themselves off the early pace in Group H ahead of next week's trip to Australia, the report said.
"This is a fair result. We were short of some good match tempo and we haven't reached where we were last year," said Guangzhou coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. "We went to Dubai for winter training, but ended up with only one training match. Now we are having some difficulties, but this game is within my expectations. What we were missing was one goal."
Scolari attributed the team's loss for being out of shape and that Guangzhou's newest striker, Jackson Martinez, has yet to settle in. However, the FIFA World Cup-winning coach promised to work on improving the team's performance.
"We are still two or three matches away from having the right season vibe back," Scolari added.
Pohang, who won the AFC Champions League in 2009, will return home to face Urawa next Wednesday.
"It was a very difficult game, but we saw our potential," said Pohang coach Choi Jin-cheul. "We were not very good at converting opportunities into goals, but generally speaking we did well."
"We hoped to move our defense a bit further, but Evergrande were very aggressive and we couldn't keep it. It was hard to form counterattacks. We had to get by with that," he added.
Choi praised Evergrande's ball control and that they deserved to be the defending champion.
"But when we are home later, we will be more confident and have faith to win the match," Choi said.
