Brazilian striker Carlos Adriano's double led FC Seoul to beat China's Shandong Luneng 4-1 Wednesday as the South Korean club stays undefeated in the Asian Football Confederation Champions League.
At Jinan Olympic Sports Centre in Jinan, China, Seoul collected their third straight victory at the AFC Champions League, thanks to a double from their Brazilian striker Adriano. The victory secures Seoul's top rank in Group F.
Seoul, the reigning champion of the Korean Football Association Cup, have been the hottest attacking club at Asia's premier club tournament before playing against Shandong. The K League Classic side put 10 goals in their last two group contests against Thai league winners Buriram United and Japanese champion Sanfrecce Hiroshima. Adriano scored seven of those 10 goals.
Despite losing their domestic league opener 1-0 to Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Seoul and Adriano proved their offense still hasn't cooled down, at least in the ACL.
Seoul, led by head coach Choi Young-soo, started the match with a 3-5-2 formation, putting their formidable foreign strikers Adriano and Dejan Damjanovic up front.
Seoul, eliminated in round 16 at last year's ACL, went up on the board first in the 26th minute after Adriano tucked in his Japanese teammate Yojiro Takahagi's cross.
Finishing 1-0 in the first half, Seoul allowed an equalizer in the 61st minute when Jucilei headed down Shandong team captain Hao Junmin's left-footed cross, while midfielder Go Yo-han failed to mark the Brazilian midfielder.
However, Seoul's offense started to explode from that moment, scoring three goals in six minutes.
In the 65th minute, Go washed off his fault in Shandong's equalizer with a left foot strike that made the score 2-1. Three minutes later, Seoul's Montenegrin striker Damjanovic stepped in as a goal scorer after beating Shandong goalkeeper Wang Dalei with his left foot to double the lead. In the 71st minute, Adriano bagged his ninth goal of the tournament after tapping Damjanovic's cross.
"I'm happy to keep the pride of the K League," Seoul head coach Choi said after the match. "I think our offensive mindset from the beginning to end gave our opponents difficulty throughout the game."
Seoul and Shandong will face each other again on April 5 at Seoul World Cup Stadium in Seoul. (Yonhap)
