Edgar double as Evergrande suffers rare Asian defeat
Kohei Shimizu (right) of Japan's Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Keisuke Honda of Australia's Melbourne Victory fight for the ball during their AFC Champions League match in Hiroshima on Tuesday. Sanfrecce won 2-1.
Brazil striker Edgar scored a first-half double as newcomer Daegu FC stunned two-time former winner Guangzhou Evergrande 3-1 in the AFC Champions League on Tuesday.
Edgar's brace sent Daegu on its way before China's Evergrande, Asian champion in 2013 and 2015, threatened a comeback when Anderson Talisca pulled one back eight minutes after half-time.
But Kim Dae-won maintained the Korean side's 100 percent start in Group F when he rifled home its third goal from a tight angle with nine minutes to go.
It was the first group-stage defeat in nearly three years for Evergrande, coached by Italian World Cup great Fabio Cannavaro, who also lost the team's seven-year grip on the Chinese Super League title last season.
Elsewhere in Group F, Keisuke Honda's second-half strike couldn't prevent Melbourne Victory from going down 1-2 to Sanfrecce Hiroshima for its second straight defeat.
Earlier, former Italy striker Graziano Pelle struck twice to earn Marouane Fellaini's Shandong Luneng a 2-2 home draw with holders Kashima Antlers.
Former Manchester United star Fellaini had a quiet game in midfield for the hosts, who had Pelle — another English Premier League import — to thank for rescuing a point.
It was the 33-year-old Pelle's second brace in as many ACL matches, having scored twice at South Korea's Gyeongnam FC last week.
J-League side Kashima had looked set to run away with it, with forward Sho Ito twice finishing slick team moves in the 10th and 14th minutes to rock Shandong.
But the imposing Pelle, who joined the CSL side from Southampton for about US$17 million in July 2016, single-handedly dragged Shandong back into the match.
He buried the penalty on 20 minutes after Kento Misao handled in the box, and then arrowed the ball into the top corner four minutes before the break on the half-volley.
Also in Group E, the very first ACLgame to be played in Malaysia ended in stalemate as Johor Darul Ta'zim drew 1-1 with fellow debutante Gyeongnam.
Kwak Tae-hwi's header from a corner put the Koreans ahead, before Johor's Brazil forward Diogo leveled in the 68th with a nerveless penalty which he fired straight down the middle.
