JINAN, April 2 (XINHUA) -- Pohang Steelers of South Korea crashed Chinese Super League runners-up Shandong Luneng 4-2 in Jinan Olympic Center on Wednesday in 2014 AFC Champions League, and grabbed 3 more points to move to the top of Group E.
At 35 minute into the match, Go Moo-yul opened the scoring for the visiting team. In the second half, Pohang captain Kim Tae-su scored from a penalty kick. Kim Seung-dae and Lee Myung-joo later increased the lead to 4-0.
Luneng scored two headers from Du Wei and Han Peng in last minutes of the match.
As to the final score, Shandong Luneng coach Cuca said Pohang was very lucky and the score could not reflect the true side of the match.
"We did have chances to score in the first half, but Pohang' s goalkeeper did well. They made use of Ryan McGowan' s turnover," said Cuca, adding the other 3 goals were also resulted from Pohang' s good luck.
"If there were ten minutes more, we could make a 4-4 draw," Cuca said he was not happy about the score, but expressed satisfaction with his players mentality.
It was Luneng' s first loss in the tournament, and Luneng ranked third in Group E with only two games to go.
"I am responsible for the loss. There was too much bad luck for us, but it is football," said Cuca.
Japan' s Cerezo Osaka had a 2-2 draw with Buriram United in Thailand. Cerezo Osaka had 5 points, the same as Luneng, but the Japanese team ranked second due to goal difference.
"Luneng will definitely make into the second stage," Cuca made clear that Luneng would manage to win more to advance into the knockout stage.
Pohang coach Hwang Sun-hong said the win was very important for Pohang.
"The key to the victory was nothing but sound preparation," said Hwang.
"It is very difficult to compete one-to-one against Luneng' s foreign player, so I asked my boys to do better in defending," said Hwang.