Melbourne: A stunning free-kick from Leonardo gave Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors an away goal advantage back to Korea Republic as they drew 1-1 in the first leg of their 2016 AFC Champions League Round of 16 clash with Australia’s Melbourne Victory on Tuesday night.
In their first appearance in the last 16, Melbourne striker Besart Berisha propelled the hosts into a 1-0 lead within the first five minutes before Brazilian Leonardo leveled the scores less than 10 minutes later.
An tightly-fought second half saw the hosts press for a winner but they were unable to penetrate Jeonbuk’s defence a second time and the Koreans will have the advantage when they sides meet again in a weeks’ time in Jeonju.
“We have one more home game and we did pretty well in this match so we will try new tactics at home. I think having a home game is an advantage for us,” said Jeonbuk coach Choi Kang-hee.
“It wasn’t too bad, we were tired from travelling but we tried our best and as these are home and away games and we did enough for this match and have another 90 minutes. Melbourne are still a very good team.”
At Melbourne Rectangular Stadium it was Kosta Barbarouses who set the pace for an entertaining first-half as his strike on goal within the first minute was hit into the arms of Jeonbuk goalkeeper Kwoun Sun-tae.
And Melbourne capitalised on their next chance as Berisha fired in his third goal of the tournament. The Jeonbuk defence failed to clear Barbarouses’ corner as Leigh Broxham turned a cross onto Berisha’s head to nod in from six yards.
Jeonbuk then struck back on 13 minutes thanks to a wonderful free-kick from Leonardo. Matthieu Delpierrere fouled Han Kyo-won on the edge of the area, leaving Lawrence Thomas rooted to the spot as Leonardo struck his attempt into the top-corner.
Soon after Daniel Georgievski rose highest from another Melbourne corner but directed his glancing header across the face of goal.
Melbourne continued to assume possession for large periods of the first half while Jeonbuk adopted a more direct route to goal.
And Berisha almost struck again for Melbourne in first-half stoppage time. Cutting onto his right, the Albanian weaved his way to the edge of the area, firing over the bar.
The striker was in action again after the restart as he then wasted a glorious opportunity to hand the A-League side the lead for a second time, steering Oliver Bozanic’s cross across the face of goal from six yards out.
With opportunities limited in the second half, the largest ovation coming from the Melbourne crowd came as club icon Archie Thompson left the field in the 67th minute for the final time in his hometown.
Georgievski then produced the best chance of the second half within the final ten minutes as his header from another corner was flashed across Kwoun’s frame and out for a goal-kick.
With an away goal advantage, the visitors appeared to be content with the 1-1 scoreline as Melbourne did the majority of the attacking in the final few minutes.
Jeonbuk substitute Ricardo Lopes provided a chance for the K League champions with four minutes remaining but could not add a second for his team as the match ended in a third consecutive draw between the two sides.
“The tie is still wide open without a doubt. We can take confidence from the amount of chances we created tonight and let's be honest, we should have won the game. [We] limited them to very, very little sightings on our goal,” said Melbourne coach Kevin Muscat.
“Obviously Leonardo scores a world class free-kick for them and they got on top of us a little bit when they scored. I though all in all we were the better team tonight.”
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