China's Shandong Luneng have kept their dreams of progressing to the round of 16 stage of the AFC Championships alive after defeating Becamex Binh Duong of Vietnam 3-1 on Wednesday in Shandong. (Photo : REUTERS)
China's Shandong Luneng Taishan F.C. put up an impressive performance on Wednesday to outplay Becamex Binh Duong and win the Group E tie 3-1 to give a lifeline to their dreams of making it to the Round of 16 stage of the 2015 AFC Champions League.
As it stands on the AFC table, in Group E, Japan's Kashiwa Reysol is leading the group with 10 points and has qualified to the next stage of the competition.
Meanwhile, South Korea's Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors and Shandong Luneng, who have eight and seven points, respectively, will have to battle between one another for a place in the next round of the tournament, when they meet on May 6 at the Jeonju World Cup Stadium in South Korea.
During the match against B. Binh Duong on Wednesday, Shandong Luneng showed incredible determination after conceding the first goal in the 20th minute through a beautiful goal by Nguyen Trong Hoang, who played the ball through the goalie's legs.
Shandong Luneng quickly sought to recover from the defensive lapse and would have pulled the equalizer much faster hadn't it been for the skills of B. Binh Duong's goalkeeper Nguyen Quoc Thien Esele. But Esele could do very little when Yang Xu slotted an inch-perfect header past him to make the scores draw in the 27th minute.
In the second half, B. Binh Duong failed to continue to play as they did in the first, allowing Shandong Luneng to dominate the game and put in two more goals.
The second goal came from Brazilian Junior Urso, who beat Esele and a defender to put his team ahead on the 61st minute, China Sports Beat reported.
Yang scored his second goal and the last goal of the game in the 69th minute after his ball bounced off Esele and a B. Bing Duong defender. Shandong Luneng had several other chances to extend the score line, but they failed to put the ball past Esele until the game ended.
