Melbourne (AFP) – Marouane Fellaini made his AFC Champions League debut for China’s Shandong Luneng on Tuesday but the former Manchester United midfielder was outshone by teammate Graziano Pelle, who scored both goals in a 2-2 draw at Gyeongnam FC.
Meanwhile Melbourne Victory slumped to their first home group stage defeat in eight years as Brazilian striker Cesinha inspired a dream debut for South Korea’s Daegu FC but 2018 winners Kashima Antlers got the new campaign off to a winning start.
Former Southampton and Italy striker Pelle opened the scoring with a close-range header after 21 minutes at the Changwon Stadium in South Korea only for the home side to strike twice in eight second-half minutes through Woo Ju-sung and a clever dinked finish from Kim Seung-jun.
The big Italian centre-forward showed an assured touch to turn his marker and equalise from close range in the 77th minute and should have bagged a hat-trick and all three points but thumped his 88th-minute header wide from five yards.
In Australia, the impressive Cesinha scored a spectacular equaliser and had a hand in both other goals as the South Korean side came from behind in their first ever group stage match to stun Melbourne Victory 3-1 at Aami Park.
Victory, who were forced into an embarrassing last-minute kit change after their sponsor was found to have links to a betting company, took a first-half lead through big Swede Ola Toivonen after good work from Keisuke Honda and Kosta Barbarouses.
But it took just two minutes for Cesinha to level for Daegu when he thumped home a volley from outside the box after being set up by fellow Brazilian Edgar’s cushioned header.
Man of the match Cesinha’s mazy run from half-way in the 51st minute found Hwang Soon-min on the left whose deflected shot looped over the stranded goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas.
And Cesinha turned provider again 10 minutes later when his cross from the right was poked home as the tall Edgar snaked out a long right leg to stun the home fans into silence.
Reigning Asian champions Kashima prevailed 2-1 at home against a spirited Johor Darul Tazim of Malaysia, who were also making their debut at this level.
The home side’s goals came either side of half-time from Taiki Hirata and Serginho, who atoned for a first-half penalty miss with a fine curled left-foot finish in the 56th minute.
Diogo Luis Santos got Johor off the mark in the Champions League with a close-range finish on 80 minutes which prompted an unnecessarily nervy finale for Kashima, who had wasted a host of chances in front of goal to put the game beyond doubt.
