Tuesday 20 February saw the first day in the second Sec. of the AFC Champions League (ACL) 2018 East group stage. Kashiwa Reysol in Group E drew with Tianjin Quanjian (China PR) 1-1, earning one point, while Kawasaki Frontale in Group F lost to Ulsan Hyundai (Korea Republic) 2-1, suffering two consecutive defeats.

With their loss to Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors (Korea Republic) 3-2 the week before, Kashiwa placed third in their group. Determined to win at home, they took the initiative early on with their high intensity. Defender KOIKE Ryuta and forward ITO Junya penetrated the right flank while forward Ramon Lopes initiated attacks from the left side. Midfielders KIM BoKyung and ESAKA Ataru combined with each other to create numerous goal-scoring opportunities.

In the 30th minute, ESAKA drew a foul in the penalty area, earning his side a penalty kick. However, the spot kick delivered by forward Cristiano was denied by the opposing goalkeeper Zhang Lu.

The opener came in the 52nd minute. An attacking sequence initiated by defender NAKAYAMA Yuta, made its way to Cristiano after being connected by ESAKA and KOIKE. Cristiano got to the end of a cross delivered by KOIKE, nailing a right footed volley to put his team in the lead.

Kashiwa continued their attacks. In the 66th minute, Ramon Lopes went close to the goal, followed by ESAKA’s attempt five minutes later. ESAKA would also strike the post in the 83rd minute, and fired another shot from ITO’s cross, only for it to be defended by the goalkeeper.

Forwards Anthony Modeste and Wang Yongpo of Tianjin Quanjian led the team to attack. The team struggled to create opportunities against Kashiwa’s defence in the first half. Forward Alexandre Pato came off the bench in the 36th minute, and they anticipated for opportunities from counter-attacks after they have conceded a goal. Wang struck a shot in the 75th minute, followed by Modeste’s long range effort in the 83rd minute. Kashiwa’s goalkeeper NAKAMURA Kosuke, however, prevented them from scoring.

The match would see a turn of events before the end of regulation time. In the 88th minute, Modeste got through Kashiwa’s defenders from a counter-attack and took a shot. Goalkeeper NAKAMURA was able to stop the shot, but Pato reacted to the loose ball, slotting the ball into the goal with his right foot.

Kashiwa fired 25 shots verses their opponent’s 12, but missed out on their opportunity to grab three points. ITO disappointedly commented that they simply lacked accuracy in their shots.

Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in Group E won an away game against Kitchee (Hong Kong) 6-0. With their two consecutive victories, they lead the group, followed by Tianjin Quanjian in second place with four points, Kashiwa at third with one point, while Kitchee in last place with no points. Kashiwa will now face Kitchee at home on Tuesday 6 March.

Kawasaki F scores late, but could not level the match

After their loss to Shanghai SIPG (China PR) in the first match, Kawasaki F were eager to win the away match to earn three points. With midfielder NAKAMURA Kengo injured, midfielder ABE Hiroyuki started the match, while midfielder MORITA Hidemasa replaced defender ELSINHO. However, the team gave up two goals before the middle of the second half from errors in their defence. First goal came in the 42nd minute, from midfielder Jeong Jae-Yong, while the second came in the 66th minute from midfielder Lee Yeong-Jae.

Kawasaki F brought in midfielder NOBORIZATO Kyohei to replace ABE in the 65th minute, and forward CHINEN Kei in place for forward OKUBO Yoshito in the 71st minute. CHINEN would score from a cross delivered by NOBORIZATO in the 85th minute, but the team failed to score another goal to get even in the match, suffering back to back losses.

In the other match of this group, Shanghai SIPG bested Melbourne Victory (Australia) 4-1 at home, winning two consecutive matches to maintain their lead. Ulsan Hyundai is in second place with four points, followed by Melbourne in third with one point. With zero points, Kawasaki F is in fourth.

Cerezo Osaka in Group G will meet Guangzhou Evergrande (China PR) at home, while Kashima Antlers in Group H will play an away game against Suwon Samsung (Korea Republic) on Wednesday 21 February.

Coaches' and Players' Comments

SHIMOTAIRA Takahiro (Coach of Kashiwa Reysol)
We started the match extremely well, creating numbers of goal-scoring opportunities. Although we couldn’t score in the first half, we continued to attack in the second half, and Cristiano’s goal was great. We played well and scored in a great fashion, so if we could have finished the match with the lead, it would have been perfect. However, unwanted events tends to happen when we struggle to capitalise on our chances. And surly enough it happened. It’s disappointing that we couldn’t hold up our lead. I instructed the players to stay aggressive to score more goals after we grabbed the lead. And the players showed great attacks from the midfield today. But we lacked quality in the final third. We are not going to dwell on this too much. After all the players did perform well today. We’ll improve on the quality of our shots and prepare for the season opener of the J. League.

FW ITO Junya (Kashiwa Reysol)
It was such a disappointing match for us. We managed to create many goal-scoring opportunities, but we only scored one goal. On top of that, we conceded a goal at the very end. I think every player playing upfront had a chance to score today, but we lacked accuracy. Once we took the lead, we played to score another goal, rather than to defend the lead. We had our chances, and if we could have capitalised, I think we would have won the match, so we need to improve on our finishing.

Paulo Sousa (Coach of Tianjin Quanjian)
We are happy with the result today. Going into the game, we knew Kashiwa was a stronger team than us. They outplayed us both technically and strategically, and performed very well. Our players also performed well, believing in themselves. We managed to create good goal-scoring opportunities and overall I am satisfied. Kashiwa is an experienced team with good techniques and physical strengths. We managed to grab one point off of them. We’d like to continue to perform like this.

Tournament Period：30 January 2018 (Tue.) ～ 10 November 2018 (Sat.)

Tournament Information