Football

GUANGZHOU — Two-time winners Guangzhou Evergrande ruthlessly dispatched nine-man Eastern 7-0 on Wednesday in a brutal introduction to the AFC Champions League for the Hong Kong minnows and their female coach.

Chan Yuen-ting, nicknamed "Beef Ball", became the first woman to coach a professional men’s team in continental competition but otherwise it was a night to forget for the trailblazing 28-year-old.

It meant the big-spending Chinese teams have all opened with a win, after Ramires’s 90th-minute strike gave Jiangsu Suning a 1-0 victory over Jeju United and Shanghai SIPG beat FC Seoul by the same scoreline on Tuesday.

Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Evergrande, who have won the last six Chinese Super League titles, couldn’t have made a stronger start to Group G as they overshadowed Chan’s historic achievement.

After Wong Tsz-ho was sent off for handling on the line, Ricardo Goulart drilled home his spot-kick in a moment that effectively killed the game as a contest after just four minutes.

Evergrande laid siege to the visitors’ defence and they went 2-0 up on 22 minutes when Wang Shangyuan prodded home from a corner after Paulinho’s header.

Alan missed a penalty but it mattered little as his fellow Brazilian Goulart fed Liao Lisheng to make it 3-0 on 33 minutes, just before Wong Chi-chung received his second yellow card.

Goalkeeper Yapp Hung-fai prevented further damage but nine-man Eastern slipped to 4-0 down two minutes after the break when Liao nodded his second from close range.

Alan made up for a string of misses when he smashed Evergrande’s fifth on 65 minutes, before Paulinho got on the scoresheet and Wang grabbed his second late on.

Also in Group G, Kawasaki Frontale were held 1-1 at home by South Korea’s Suwon Samsung Bluewings when Shogo Taniguchi’s own goal cancelled out Yu Kobayashi’s 11th-minute opener.

In Group H, Japan’s Gamba Osaka outclassed Adelaide United 3-0 in a rerun of the 2008 final, when they were the last Japanese club to lift the trophy.

Tall striker Shun Nagasawa put the J-League outfit ahead with a powerful header, before Yasuyuki Konno rammed home a rebound in first-half stoppage time to put Gamba in command.

Gamba rounded off the scoring when Reds defender Dylan McGowan deflected Yasuhito Endo’s free kick into his own net with nine minutes left. — AFP