Soccer-Late Furuhashi winner keeps Kobe perfect in Asian Champions League
By Michael Church
HONG KONG, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Vissel Kobe continued the perfect start to their debut season in the Asian Champions League on Wednesday when Kyogo Furuhashi's last-minute winner earned the Japanese side all three points against South Korea's Suwon Bluewings.
Furuhashi slid in to steer home Gotoku Sakai's low centre to move Thorsten Fink's side on to six points from their opening two games after last week's 5-1 demolition of Malaysian champions Johor Darul Ta'zim.
Kobe sit on top of Group G and are the only club to have picked up any points, with Suwon and JDT only playing once due to the postponement of Guangzhou Evergrande's fixtures until April due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
Japanese champions Yokohama F Marinos find themselves in a similar situation in Group H after Ange Postecoglou's side thrashed Sydney FC 4-0 at Yokohama International Stadium to maintain their flawless start to the competition.
Ado Onaiwu and Teruhito Nakagawa both netted braces for Marinos, who followed up a win over two-time champions Jeonbuk Motors to take command of the standings. Jeonbuk and Sydney have zero points while China's Shanghai SIPG have yet to begin their campaign.
In the western half of the competition, Xavi Hernandez's Al Sadd from Qatar bounced back from an opening day draw against Al Nassr from Saudi Arabia in Group D to defeat Iran's Sepahan 3-0, with Asian Player of the Year Akram Afif opening the scoring before Hassan Al Haydos hit a brace.
"The team was in their best condition and we had one of our best matches this season," said Xavi.
"We definitely deserved this victory.
"The win was against a strong and special team who are favourites to win the group. This victory shows that Al Sadd can go far in the competition."
Al Nassr joined Al Sadd at the top of the group with four points as Chelsea academy graduate Mukhtar Ali cancelled out Omar Yassen's opener for Al Ain of the United Arab Emirates and Abderrazak Hamdallah hit the winner 10 minutes from time to give the Saudis a 2-1 win.
Al Taawon, also from Saudi Arabia, picked up their second win in a row with a 2-0 victory over Al Duhail to top Group C, while Sharjah from the UAE and Iran's Persepolis shared a 2-2 draw to claim their first point of the competition. (Reporting by Michael Church Editing by Christian Radnedge)
