Iniesta sparks Kobe to late win in Asian Champions League

Barcelona great Andres Iniesta set up a last-minute winner as Japan’s Vissel Kobe beat Suwon Bluewings 1-0 to stay perfect in the AFC Champions League on Wednesday.

Elsewhere, Teruhito Nakagawa and Ado Onaiwu plundered two apiece as Yokohama F-Marinos thrashed Sydney FC 4-0 to emulate their J-League rivals Kobe with two wins out of two in the coronavirus-hit competition.

Iniesta, 35, was quiet for much of the night in Suwon but he finally unlocked the defence with a through-ball to Gotoku Sakai, whose cross was met first-time by Kyogo Furuhashi.

It was far from Kobe’s swashbuckling Champions League introduction last week, when they became the first Japanese team to score five goals on debut with a 5-1 hammering of Johor Darul Ta’zim.

But it was enough to give Kobe an early grip on Group G in a competition missing most Chinese teams so far after their entry was delayed until April by the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

Meanwhile, Onaiwu sparked a home rout for Japanese champions Yokohama after just 12 minutes, turning to smash a deflected, left-foot shot past Sydney goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne from the edge of the box.

Nakagawa bagged the first of his quickfire double with an exquisite chip on the half-hour mark to double Yokohama’s advantage before effectively killing the tie in his team’s next attack.

The pint-sized winger pounced on a clever pass from Thai Theerathon Bunmathan to wriggle free and score with a clinical close-range finish as the visitors, by some distance the A-League’s best side, fell apart.

A die-hard Liverpool fan, Yokohama coach Ange Postecoglou, who led Australia to their first Asian Cup title in 2015, has brought his own version of Reds boss Jurgen Klopp’s high, counter-pressing style to the J-League, and his hardworking team squeezed the life out of Sydney.

Agence France-Presse