Konno Yasuyuki (L) of Japan's Gamba Osaka fights for the ball against Go Yo-han of South Korea's FC Seoul during their Asian Champions League Round of 16 match in Seoul Wednesday. — AP
SINGAPORE — An injury-time penalty rocked the AFC Champions League hopes of 10-man Guangzhou Evergrande Wednesday as the favorite went down 2-1 to Seongnam FC in the last 16 first leg. Fabio Cannavaro's 2013 winners recovered from going an early goal down and despite a red card to Li Xuepeng, the wealthy Chinese club looked set to escape with a 1-1 draw. But there was late drama when Brazilian forward Ricardo Bueno took a tumble in the box and captain Kim Do-heon held his nerve to bury his spot kick in the 96th minute. It sparked celebrations for Seongnam but it still has much work to do away next week, especially if Guangzhou welcomes back injured Brazilian trio Elkeson, Alan and Rene Junior. Seongnam went ahead through Jorginho on 23 minutes, but the Brazilian's effort was cancelled out just before half-time by Huang Bowen's stunning equalizer from 25 meters. Guangzhou was reduced to 10 men in the 65th minute when Li caught Bueno in the chest with a high boot. And the Brazilian drew another pivotal foul when he won the penalty deep into stoppage time. In Seoul, Takashi Usami's second-half brace gave Gamba Osaka a 3-1 away win over FC Seoul as the Japanese treble-winner took a giant stride toward the quarterfinals. In Tehran, Naft Tehran earned a one-goal lead into the second leg against Saudi Arabia's Al-Ahli after handing the visitors a 1-0 defeat. Iran international Gholamreza Rezaei scored the only goal of a tight game in the 34th minute to ensure the second leg in Jeddah next Wednesday will be a tense affair. Naft dominated for much of the 90 minutes but was unable to add to Rezeai's solitary strike in front of its own fans in Tehran. The home side sent an early message to its visitors inside the first minute when Abdullah Al-Muaiouf had to react sharply to Vahid Amiry's miss-hit center, with the goalkeeper only just doing enough to stop the ball from crossing the line. With 12 minutes remaining the Iranians thought they had doubled their lead when Iman Mobali's free kick from 25 yards looked destined for the back of the net, only for Al-Muaiouf to push the ball onto post and leave Naft with just the one-goal cushion with another 90 minutes to play. In another encounter UAE teams Al-Ahli and Al-Ain settled for a goalless draw. — AP
