Pohang, Kashima into AFC Champions League knockouts

South Korea’s Pohang Steelers came from behind to book their place in the knockout rounds of the AFC Champions League on Tuesday, where they were joined by Japan’s Kashima Antlers.

Pohang beat Australia’s Central Coast Mariners 3-2 to line up alongside Japan’s Kawasaki Frontale in the last 16 from Group H. Defending champions Gamba Osaka and Uzbek giants Pakhtakor are the other teams already through.

A Denilson hat-trick did the job for Pohang, with the winner coming a minute from time.

His early penalty sent the home side on their way, but Adam Kwasnik scored twice for the Mariners in four second-half minutes.

Denilson, though, struck twice more inside the last 19 minutes to crush Australian dreams.

The victory extinguished any faint hopes that China’s Tianjin Tada had of going through from the group, with their 3-1 victory over Kawasaki meaning little.

Marquinhos scored twice on his return from injury for Kashima Antlers as they won their heavyweight clash with South Korea’s Suwon Bluewings 3-0.

The J-League heavyweights progressed to the next round after Shanghai Shenhua only managed a 1-1 draw away to Singapore Armed Forces, who picked up their first point of the competition.

Shanghai now have seven points to Suwon’s nine with one game to go. The top two qualify.

Defender Go Oiwa put Kashima in front with a 27th-minute header before Marquinhos’s brace sent the J-League champions three points clear of Suwon.

In Group F, FC Seoul hammered Indonesian minnows Sriwijaya 5-1 with a hat-trick from Dejan Damjanovic and a brace by Sim Woo-Yeon doing the damage.

It kept Seoul’s hopes alive, moving them to seven points alongside China’s Shandong Luneng, who play Wednesday. Gamba Osaka have already qualified from the group.

In the west Asian side of the tournament, Group C leaders Al Ittihad came within a minute of securing their place in the knockout stage only for Esteghlal, the Iranian champions, to score a last minute equaliser in a 1-1 draw.

Ittihad, who were recently crowned Saudi Arabian champions for the 2008-09 season, have nine points while Esteghlal move onto three.

Umm Salal stayed second in the group having come back from 2-0 to force a 2-2 draw at home to Al Jazira.

Group D saw freescoring Ettifaq of Saudi Arabia score four goals for the third match in succession as they humbled Uzbekistan’s Bunyodkor 4-0 to ensure they will finish top of the group.

Once again their Ghanaian striker Prince Tagoe led from the front as he made it seven goals in the last three games.

Bunyodkor can still progress as runners-up – provided they avoid losing in the final group match – because 2007 runners-up Sepahan suffered a surprise 2-1 defeat at Al Shabab Al Arabi in the United Arab Emirates.

Ettifaq coach Ioan Andone was impressed by his side’s performance but said he could well make changes for their final group match so he can rest some of his players.

“We played a nice match tonight (Tuesday) and we were really smart by playing on the quick counter-attacks which helped us to win,” said Andone.

“Before the game I told the players that we needed the three points and managed to do that. We were lucky to open the scoring and things could have been difficult for us had we not scored quickly.”

The top-placed team in each of the eight groups will enjoy home advantage against one of the second-placed sides in the round of 16, which will be held in the west zone on May 27 and in the east zone on June 24.