View From Gongti: Beijing Guoan 2-3 Ulsan Hyundai

Beijing Guoan went down 3-2 to Ulsan Hyundai last night, ending their Asian Champions' League hopes, but they didn’t do it without a fight. With only two points from the previous four ACL matches, there was little hope of the Beijingers getting past the group stage. As such, Jaime Pacheco completely changed the lineup, keeping just two starters from the previous weekend’s league win.

The thrown-together reserve side wasn’t ready for the strong Korean opposition, giving up two very easy goals to the visitors in the first 20 minutes. With both goals coming from the right flank, Pacheco made an early substitution and things settled down.

The second half began with Guoan getting one back, Zhang Xizhe grabbing the goal. A bad tackle by Guoan youngster Xu Wu gave up a penalty kick, but keeper Bai Xiaolei came up big with the save. However, Ulsan was still able to pull two ahead shortly after. Things got worse when Guoan attacker Reinaldo was shown red.

Guoan didn’t give up, instead continuing to push forward looking for goals, finally getting one through hero Shao Jiayi in the 90th minute, his first since returning from Germany. A late free kick could have brought with it the equalizer, but Xu Liang’s shot was high.

The resulting defeat was disappointing, but it was a hard fought, exciting match. Guoan is next in action at Workers' Stadium on May 11th against Guizhou Renhe.

Read Brandon's full match report on Wild East Football.