Brisbane Roar 1-1 Beijing Guoan
A-League champions Brisbane Roar have bowed out of the 2012 AFC Champions League tournament with a fripustrating 1-1 draw with Beijing Guoan.
Brisbane took a deserved lead with just 15 minutes on the clock when Berisha finished off a fine move that saw Mitch Nichols feed the impressive Kofi Danning and the Albanian striker was left to slide the ball home.
Danning was causing the Beijing defence numerous problems throughout the first 25 minutes and it was through the Ghana-born winger that Brisbane’s greatest threat existed.
Danning and Berisha …

GAMBA OSAKA (JPN) v ADELAIDE UNITED (AUS) (0 – 2) (FT)
BRISBANE ROAR (AUS) v BEIJING GUOAN (CHN) (1 – 1) (FT)
ULSAN HYUNDAI (KOR) v FC TOKYO (JPN) (1 – 0) (FT)
BUNYODKOR (UZB) v POHANG STEELERS (KOR) (1 – 0) (FT)
NASAF (UZB) v ESTEGHLAL (IRN) (0 – 2) (FT)
AL RAYYAN (QAT) v AL JAZIRA (UAE) (3 – 4) (FT)
BANIYAS (UAE) v PAKHTAKOR (UZB) (2 – 0) (FT)
AL ITTIHAD (KSA) v AL ARABI (QAT) (3 – 2) (FT)

FC Tokyo 4-2 Brisbane Roar
FC Tokyo booked their place in the knockout stages with a 4 – 2 win over Brisbane Roar.
Brisbane needed a comprehensive win to keep their continental campaign alive and Rado Vidosic’s team had the perfect start to their first game under the control of their new coach when Besart Berisha scored from close range after just four minutes.
FC Tokyo responded immediately when Hideto Takahashi equalised less than a minute later with a shot that went in off the post and by the 20th minute the hosts …

Brisbane Roar 1-2 Ulsan Hyundai
Brisbane: A penalty from captain Kwak Tae-hwi with 17 minutes remaining earned Ulsan Hyundai a 2-1 win over A-League Grand Finalists Brisbane Roar on Tuesday to hand the K-League side a major boost in their bid to qualify for the last 16 of the AFC Champions League.
Shane Stefanutto’s third goal as a professional midway through the first half had cancelled out Ulsan’s early opener from Colombian midfielder Julian Estiven Velez.
But after Bahrain defender Sayed Mohamed Adnan was adjudged to have upended Kang Min-soo inside the area, …

Ulsan Hyundai 1-1 Brisbane Roar
Australia’s Brisbane Roar survived playing for nearly 45 minutes with 10 men to claim a second consecutive away point in the AFC Champions League as Korea Republic’s Ulsan Hyundai were forced to settle for a1-1 draw on Wednesday.
With coach Ange Postecoglou promised attacking football from the visitors to Ulsan Munsu Stadium, Brisbane took a deserved lead nine minutes before the break following a composed finish from Nick Fitzgerald
Brisbane, though, endured a nightmare start to the second half as Matthew Jurman was sent-off less than a minute …

FC Tokyo 2-2 Ulsan Hyundai
Brazilian striker Maranhao earned Ulsan Hyundai a valuable point with a last minute goal against FC Tokyo on Tuesday afternoon as the clubs’ AFC Champions League Group F Match Day 2 encounter finished in a 2-2 draw.
Maranhao, who joined the Ulsan Hyundai on loan from Japan’s Ventforet Kofu, came off the bench to assist in delviering the first goal and then scored the second in the final minute.
Yohei Tokunaga had given FC Tokyo the lead eight minutes before half time but, with nine minutes remaining, Kim …

On paper the all-conquering A-League champion lined up against a side that had only recently earned promotion to Japan’s top league.

The Japanese outfit had only arrived in Brisbane on Monday morning minus captain Yohei Kajiyama and Brazilian spearhead Lucas after they were injured in last weekend’s 2-1 Japanese Super Cup loss to Kashiwa Reysol.

Inaugural champions Al Ain signed off their 2011 AFC Champions League campaign with a 3-1 win over Japan’s Nagoya Grampus, a result ended the visitors’ hopes of topping Group F.
With Grampus and Seoul FC level on 10 points before the game, the Japanese were keen to win and seal a home tie in the last 16 after the Koreans could only draw at Hangzhou Greentown.
But a young Al Ain side led 2-0 at the break and then completed a fine 3-1 win to lift their struggling form and morale ahead …

Two goals from Dejan Damjanovic helped FC Seoul to a 3-0 win over Al Ain on Wednesday that booked the K-League team a place in the second round of the 2011 AFC Champions League.
An early opener from Go Yo-han laid the platform for the Montenegrin international to score a goal in each half and send 23, 623 fans at Seoul World Cup Stadium home happy as the Korea Republic champions reached the knockout stage for the second time in three years.
The only issue remaining …

Nagoya Grampus sealed a place in the round of 16 in the 2011 AFC Champions League after Jungo Fujimoto’s second-half penalty clinched a 1-0 win over Hangzhou Greentown at Mizuho Athletic Stadium in Nagoya.
Without key players Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Mu Kanzaki and Josh Kennedy, Nagoya struggled to find their rhythm, particularly going forward.
Hangzhou failed to create much and their only chance over the first 45 minutes came just before the half-hour mark when Sebastian Vazquez fired a free-kick from midrange that was not good enough to trouble Nagoya goalkeeper Seigo …

Goals from Mu Kanazaki and Kensuke Nagai gave Nagoya Grampus a 2-0 win at FC Seoul to put the Japanese champions on top of Group F in the 2011 AFC Champions League.

After Kanazaki’s first-half opener, the Korea Republic title-holders threw everything at the visitors for much of an entertaining match but a defensive blunder late in the game allowed Nagai to make sure of a valuable three points.

A brilliant strike by youngster Omar Abdulrahman helped hosts Al Ain beat China’s Hangzhou Greentown 1-0 and revives their chances of reaching the knockout stage of the 2011 AFC Champions League.

Victory for the inaugural AFC Champions League winners moved them level with Hangzhou and three points adrift of joint leaders FC Seoul and Nagoya Grampus to give Group F a wide open look with two rounds of matches to play.

J. League champions Nagoya Grampus let slip a first-half lead as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Korean counterparts FC Seoul in their Group F 2011 AFC Champions League clash.

FC Seoul were the most aggressive from the beginning with Mauricio Molina’s movement up front causing problems and the Columbian international went close with a couple of good attempts in the early exchanges.

FC Seoul took control of Group F of the 2011 AFC Champions League with a 3-0 win over Hangzhou Greentown.

Hangzhou Greentown (2-0) Nagoya Grampus
Substitute Ba Li gave Hangzhou Greentown a dream start to their AFC Champions League debut as he scored one and set up another to help the Chinese side stun Japanese champions Nagoya Grampus 2-0 in their Group F opener.
Ba provided the assist for Luis Ramirez just after being brought onto the pitch just after the hour mark before scoring his side’s second five minutes before time when Hangzhou looked desperate to protect their slender lead.
The ACL debutants’ outplayed and outsmarted the visitors, particularly in the …

Winners of the 2010 J League, this is likely Japan’s best hope for 2011 ACL Champions League. Coming off the winter off season all of the J League teams will be slightly rusty but the professionalism of the J League will ensure that each team will be ready for a new domestic and ACL season. Given a J league team hasn’t won the tournament for a few years, pressure will be on to at least have a J League team into the final for 2011.

Group F had already been decided before today’s play, with Kashima Antlers and Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors having already qualified for the second round. The two met today to settle who would qualify in top spot and meet Pohang Steelers in the knockout stage.
Kashima Antlers 2–1 Jeonbuk FC
Kashima boss Oswaldo Oliveira signaled his objective in the pre-match press conference that his team was not looking for a draw, despite only needing not to lose to earn the all important advantage of “playing at home next round.”
The Antlers went 2 – 0 …

Kawasaki Frontale have battled back from the brink to give themselves a shot at qualification for the last 16 of the AFC Champions League. The J-League side visit Beijing Gouan on the final matchday only one point behind the Chinese Super League team and the winner of that tie will take their place alongside Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma in the knockouts.

Frontale were off to a flyer and were two goals to the good by the 20 minute mark. Hiroyuki Taniguchi opened the scoring after five minutes and Yusuke Tasaka doubled the lead 15 minutes after. That was the way it remained until the 79th minute when Renatinho added a third for a rejuvenated Kawasaki, who lost to Melbourne in their last outing.

Match Day 4 Tuesday of the AFC Champions League 2010 resulted in some upsets and wake up calls for many teams that had a easy road so far.

Group B

Zob Ahan have managed 2 major upsets in a matter of weeks against the Uzbek aristocrats Bunyodkor on Tuesday.

They followed up their MD3 3-0 home victory with a 1-0 win that takes them to the top of the table with 10 points and sends Bunyodkor tumbling down to third, with six points.

Group A
Esteghlal 3-0 Al Gharafa
Al Ahli 5-1 Al-Jazira
Al Gharafa couldn’t compete with Esteghlal today and went down 3-0 in the Azadi Stadium today. Esteghlal striker Farhad Majidi bagged himself two goals today. Majidi put the hosts ahead after a quarter of an hour before doubling their lead ten minutes after the break. Defender Pejman Montazeri then sealed the victory ten minutes from time.
In Group A’s other fixture, Al-Ahli, who so far have leaked five goals in their first two matches, turned things around against Al Jazira scoring 5 goals and …