Sluggish Mariners put to the sword by Guangzhou

Central Coast Mariners' AFC Champions League ambitions were extinguished on Tuesday night as Guangzhou R&F clinched a spot in the group stages at its expense with a 3-1 win in Gosford.

CCM

Jiang Ning opens the scoring for Guangzhou R&F against Central Coast Mariners (AAP) Source: AAP

Phil Moss's men offered only token resistance as the Chinese Super League side cruised to victory in the sudden-death qualifier.

The Mariners found themselves behind as early as the eighth minute when Jiang Ning found space in the box to cut inside and curl an unstoppatble shot past hepless goalkeeper Liam Reddy.
The visitor was content to sit back and invite the home side on but the Mariners, lacking in confidence and belief after a run of poor A-League form this season, rarely looked like finding a way through.

And it was penned further back on the ropes in the 59th minute when a flowing move cut the home side asunder again, with Ning this time squaring the ball for Lu Lin to side-foot into an empty net to seal Guangzhou's passage through to the main draw.

An own goal from defender Josh Rose in the 89th minute completed a night of missery for Central Coast before substitute Glen Trifiro's well struck 25-metre free-kick restored a semblance of respectability to the scoreline in stoppage time.

Moss was hoping an ACL berth would provide a welcome distraction from a dismal A-League season but things have gone from bad to worse at Central Coast.

The Mariners, who have qualified for the past three ACL campaigns, had its hopes dashed early when Jiang took advantage of a defence caught napping. He shook off his marker Storm Roux, with his sweet strike putting Guangzhou ahead.

Matthew Sim, provided the Mariners' only shot on target in the opening half, forcing a save from keeper Liu Dianzuo.

Poor defence almost cost the host another goal when Wang Song cut the ball back to the unmarked Jiang who put gloveman Reddy to work with a powerful shot.

Moroccan international Abderrazak Hamedallah, who has scored 22 goals in as many appearances for the Chinese club, was next on the attack keeping Reddy busy with another attempt.

Hamedallah continued to terrorise the Mariners in the second half, this time with brilliant lead-up work which resulted in a second goal for the visitors.

The Moroccan got past defender Jacob Poscoliero and off-loaded to Jiang who set up midfielder Liu for the easy strike for the visitor's second.

Guangzhou could have been 3-0 up in the 70th minute when Jiang had a point-blank shot at goal but misfired.

Just when the Mariners thought things couldn't get any worse, Rose, who was attempting to play the ball back to Reddy, sent it into his own goal, not realising the gloveman had come out of his box.

Trifiro's strike was too little, too late.

Guangzhou now join Japan's Gamba Osaka, South Korean side Seongnam FC, and Thai club Buriram United FC in group F with ita first game against the J.League side in Japan next Tuesday.

Central Coast, meanwhile will need to quickly re-focus before facing a red-hot Sydney FC on Saturday in the A-League.


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3 min read
Published 17 February 2015 7:48pm
Updated 17 February 2015 10:27pm
Source: SBS

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