Scolaris Bunyodkor beats Pohang
World Cup winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolaris Bunyodkor will take a two-goal advantage into the return leg of its Asian Champions League quarterfinals after its win over South Koreas Pohang Steelers at Tashkent on Wednesday night.
The other traveling Korean team also went down, with Qatars Umm Salal scoring twice in the last 10 minutes in a comeback 3-2 win over FC Seoul. Kawasaki held off Nagoya Grampus 2-1 in an all-Japan quarterfinal at Tokyos National Stadium.
Server Djeparovs two late goals sealed Bunyodkors 3-1 win over Pohang, which took the lead in the 7th minute via No Byung-juns strike from the edge of the box from Kim Jung-kyums floated left-wing cross.
Bunyodkor equalized on Victor Karpenkos volley in the 30th and, with Pohang down to 10 men for the last half hour after defender Kim Hyung-il was red carded, Djeparov turned in two Jasur Hasanov crosses in the last 11 minutes.
Pohang was denied a valuable away goal in stoppage time for offside.
It was a very important game to win. There were moments in the match when they were the better side and sometimes when Bunyodkor were the better side, we both played beautiful football, said Scolari, who guided his native Brazil to the 2002 World Cup title and had stints in charge of Portugal and Premier League club Chelsea before moving to Uzbekistan on a lucrative contract.
We now hope that we will go through but the result is not 3-1, the result will not be decided until the last minute in Pohang, Scolari said. Pohang played well for the first 15 minutes and scored a good goal but after that, we showed our character.
Pohang coach Sergio Farias promised a tougher encounter next week.
We scored first and created a lot, although we made a mistake for Bunyodkors first goal, Farias said. But in Pohang we will write another story.
At Doha, Magno Alves scored his second goal of the match six minutes from time to cap off Umm Salals win over Seoul.
Jung Jo-gooks double had put Seoul in control at half time but Alves reduced the margin with a goal 11 minutes after the break.
Seoul had a chance to restore the two-goal buffer but was denied in the 67th minute when defender Ahn Tae-uns left-foot strike from just outside the area hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced back out. TV replays showed the ball had crossed the line.
Fabio Cesar leveled in the 83rd when he he controlled Alvez pass on the left edge of the area and cleverly angled it past the Korean goalkeeper.
A minute later, Alves regathered a long ball between two Seoul defenders before driving in a low shot from just outside the box.
In the all Japanese clash, Kengo Nakamura and Juninho scored two goals in four minutes as Kawasaki Frontale edged Nagoya.
Australian striker Josh Kennedy put Nagoya ahead in the 28th minute with a header at the far post off Naoshi Nakamuras cross.
Kawasaki equalized on the hour when Japan international Kengo Nakamura threaded a free kick through Nagoyas defensive wall.
Brazilian striker Juninho scored the winner with a right-foot shot from close range in the 63rd.
The remaining first-leg match will be played Thursday with Pakhtakor hosting Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia in Uzbekistan.
The return matches are next week, with the winners advancing to home-and-away semifinals on Oct. 21 and Oct. 28.
The ACL final will be held in Japan on Nov. 7 with the winners clinching a spot at the club World Cup at Abu Dhabi in December.
