Both of the remaining Korean sides, Jeonbuk and Ulsan Hyundai, crashed out of the AFC Champions League despite returning to their respective home grounds for the second leg respectively.
Ulsan thought they were in the driver’s seat to qualify for the quarter-finals, after pulling off a 2-1 win over Urawa Red Diamonds in the first leg at the Saitama World Cup Stadium.
However, the side were left dumbstruck as a brace from Shinzo Koroki left them trailing on aggregate. The veteran forward’s first goal came four minutes before half time, with a powerful header which found the net right in front of the traveling Urawa supporters.
It took until the final five minutes for Koroki to net his second, finally overtaking Urawa’s advantage on away goals and putting the Japanese side in front on aggregate with another header. Brazilian midfielder Ewerton finally sealed the deal for the 2017 Champions, getting on the end of Kenyu Sugimoto’s knock-down and rifling his first-time shot into the back of the net.
Elsewhere in Korea, Jeonbuk took the lead against Shanghai SIPG as striker Kim Shin-Wook muscled off his marker and slid a low shot into the bottom corner of the net for the hosts. However, their advantage was canceled out when Hulk’s deflected effort caught the hosts defense off guard and sailed past the goalkeeper to level up the scoring on aggregate.
After a combined 210 minutes of football across two legs, the tie would have to be decided from the spot. Lee Dong-Gook’s miss for his side’s first penalty would come back to haunt the Korean champions, as Shanghai converted each of their five penalties to secure their progression to the quarter-finals.
Their defeats mean that Korea will not be represented in the quarter-finals of this year’s AFC Champions League. Both sides will now turn their attention back to domestic football, where the pair and FC Seoul are in what is shaping up to be a heated race for first place.