Match Report
14 points and 3 places separated them: Cerezo Osaka 1st with 14, Guangzhou Evergrande 4th with 0. On recent form Guangzhou Evergrande sat only 37th league-wide over the last five rounds, well short of their 4th overall. Per game in the league, Cerezo Osaka were scoring 2.17 and conceding 0.33, Guangzhou Evergrande 0.17 and 2.83, against a competition average of 1.42 goals per team per game.
Three consecutive defeats weighed on Guangzhou Evergrande. The last-five ledger: Cerezo Osaka 9/15, Guangzhou Evergrande 2/15.
Chang Arena in Buriram staged the fixture, a ground that holds 32,600. Half-time and full-time told different stories: Cerezo Osaka led 1-0 at the break, before 4 more goals closed it at 5-0.