DUBAI — Japan's Kashiwa Reysol held on to begin its AFC Champions League campaign with a goalless draw against former winner Jeonbuk Motors Tuesday. The home side dominated proceedings at Jeonju World Cup Stadium and had the ball in the net twice in the first half only to have the efforts ruled out for offside. Lee Jae-sung also hit the crossbar before half-time for the 2006 champion, but with visiting goalkeeper Takanori Sugeno superbly denying Han Kyo-won before the break, playoff winner Kashiwa held on as the sides shared the spoils in the Group E opener. Jeonbuk, which also reached the AFC Champions League final in 2011, made a flying start to the contest and had the ball in the back of the net after just five minutes as Lee Jae-sung headed home only for the assistant referee's flag to save Kashiwa. The home side again had the ball in the back of the net 10 minutes later, but again a raised flag from the assistant referee this time ruled out Cho Sung-hwan's back post header. In another encounter, Chinese Super League side Guangzhou R&F got its maiden AFC Champions League campaign off to a dream start with a 2-0 victory away at J. League treble winner and 2008 champion Gamba Osaka in the Group F opening fixture at Expo 70 Stadium in Seoul. Moroccan striker Abderrazzaq Hamedallah opened the scoring after 10 minutes for the playoff winner and although Gamba was on top for much of the tie in Osaka, Wang Song's deflected free-kick on 80 minutes secured a milestone win for visitors Guangzhou. Unchanged from its 3-1 playoff victory over Australia's Central Coast Mariners, the visitor got off to another ideal start on foreign soil as it took the lead after just 10 minutes through danger man Hamedallah. Jiang Ning won the ball to feed the pacey Moroccan who took off on a surging run from just outside the center circle, and with the Gamba defenders backing off, Hamedallah motored into the area and with players converging around him, tricked his way past the backpedalling Keisuke Iwashita before drilling the ball past goalkeeper Masaaki Higashiguchi at his near post from an angle. The early setback spurred the host on to find an equalizer, though, and it remained on top for the remainder of the half with first Takashi Usami and then Hiroyuki Abe stinging the palms of Liu Dianzuo from range as well as peppering the Guangzhou goal with a series of corners. Despite having enjoyed the lion's share of possession, Gamba was hit by a sucker punch with just 10 minutes remaining as Wang's free-kick from 20 yards out took a vital deflection off Patric in the defensive wall and flew past Higashiguchi who was left wrong-footed. Yang Xu's second-half double later spared Shandong Luneng's blushes and made it a 100 percent start for Chinese clubs as it beat Binh Duong 3-2 in provincial Thu Dau Mot. Binh Duong's Nigerian forward Ganiyu Oseni cancelled out Wang Yongpo's opener, before Wang Qiang gave the hosts a shock lead with an own goal on 56 minutes. But Yang got Shandong back to 2-2 just three minutes later before he completed the great escape in Group E by snatching the winner with 10 minutes to go. But Thailand's Buriram United started with a win when it beat South Korean side Seongnam FC 2-1 at the Thunder Castle Stadium. Other results: Persepolis (Iran) 3, Lekhwiya (Qatar) 0; Al-Ain (UAE) 0, Al-Shabab (Saudi Arabia) 0; Pakhtakor FK (Uzbekistan) 2, Naft Tehran (Iran) 1.— Agencies
