Western Sydney Wanderers beat Guangzhou Evergrande 1-0 in a first leg of the Asian Champions League quarter-finals which ended in chaos on Wednesday after the Asian champions had two players sent off in the last three minutes.
Guangzhou’s Italian coach Marcello Lippi and his staff charged on to the pitch to remonstrate with Emirati referee Mohammed Abdulla Hassan Mohamed after midfielder Gao Lin had followed defender Zhang Linpeng in being dismissed.
“I was a bit upset,” Lippi said. “I know I couldn’t go on the field but there were two red cards in the final minutes.
“I know it was wrong to go on the field but at that time I just wanted to ask the referee why he chose to gave the second red card (Gao Lin) because I didn’t understand why he did this.”
Not only will Zhang and Gao be banned for next week’s return leg in southern China, but the fit of pique could end in Lippi being banished to the stands if officials take action.
Wanderers coach Tony Popovic refused to reveal what was said in angry exchanges between the two sets of coaching staff.
“That’s between us, but I’m sure they wouldn’t be happy if I went on to berate one of their players,” he said.
“We got the win at home, we go over there now and we know we have a real chance to go through and that’s what we wanted after the first leg. It’s half-time, we’ve got a slight edge and we’ll give it our all.”
Playing midway through their off-season, the A-League side gave no quarter in defence and got sharper the longer the match went on to run out worthy winners in front of a noisy crowd of 17,093 at Parramatta Stadium.
They had to ride their luck at times but Guangzhou’s attack of former Italian internationals Alessandro Diamanti and Alberto Gilardino and prolific Brazilian Elkeson failed to click.
The visitors started brightly and finished strongly but for all the goalmouth incident only three of the attempts on goal in the first half were on target.
Shannon Cole had the best of them in the 39th minute for Wanderers but, unmarked at the back post, steered his header well wide.
The Wanderers came out strongly in the second half with Labinot Haliti causing problems down the right flank and the lively Tomi Juric getting a shot on target which goalkeeper Zeng Chen got down well to cover.
After 60 minutes, Golec cut in from the left wing and, seeing the covering defender slip, hit a cross-shot from the edge of box which eluded Juric and Guangzhou goalkeeper Zeng and rolled into the net.
Guangzhou continued to create half chances at the other end but Lippi continued to look in vain for a moment of class from his expensively assembled strikeforce.
Zhang was dismissed for an elbow on Mark Bridge after 88 minutes and Gao followed two minutes later after being adjudged to have fouled Brazilian Saba.
It was Guangzhou’s second defeat in Australia in the competition this year after going down 2-0 to Melbourne Victory in the group stage in April.
Guangzhou became the first Chinese club to win the AFC Champions League when they defeated Korean side FC Seoul on away goals in last year’s final.
The return leg takes place at the Tianhe Stadium in Guangzhou next Wednesday with the winners facing FC Seoul or Pohang Steelers, who meet an all-South Korean last eight tie, in the semi-finals.
Arabian Gulf League club Al Ain lead Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia 2-0 after their first leg, with another Saudi side, Al Hilal, owning a 1-0 edge on Al Sadd of Qatar in the other half of the bracket.
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