Marcello Lippi’s Guangzhou Evergrande have been crowned Asian Champions League winners, with a 1-1 second-leg draw against Seoul enough to hand them the title on away goals, reports ESPNsoccernet. Guangzhou claimed a 2-2 draw in the first leg in Seoul, giving them an advantage heading into the penultimate match and Brazilian Elkeson’s goal proved enough to clinchthe trophy.
Both sides went into the break locked at 0-0, with very few chances in the first half aside from Dario Conca’s early effort which hit the post.
The hosts always looked most likely to open the scoring and they were unfortunate not to score just two minutes into the second half when Muriqui’s close range effort was kept out by Seoul goalkeeper Kim Yong-Dae.
After 57 minutes, Seoul were finally broken down as Elkeson latched onto Muriqui’s through ball and buried the ball past Yong-Dae.
The goal did little to dent Seoul’s confidence and they got themselves back into the contest just four minutes later when Dejan Damjanovic found the net from Sergio Escudero’s pass.
That proved the end of Seoul’s chances, though, as Guangzhou held on to make Lippi the first coach to lift both the Asian Champions League and World Cup.
-With The News Today input
