Marcao doubles up as Wuhan Three Towns remain undefeated

HONG KONG : Brazilian striker Marcao scored twice to send Wuhan Three Towns on their way to their 14th win in 15 games with a 5-1 victory over Shenzhen FC on Sunday that keeps Pedro Morilla's side on top of the Chinese Super League standings.

Marcao's first-half brace takes his personal tally to 16 goals from 14 matches, double his nearest challenger on the league's scoring charts as Wuhan remain unbeaten.

The former Hebei FC forward opened the scoring when he latched on to Nicolae Stanciu's fifth minute through ball to steer his shot over goalkeeper Dong Chunyu.

Half an hour later he threw himself at Xie Pengfie's lofted free kick to head past Dong and give Wuhan control of the game.

The 28-year-old missed out on a third hat trick of the season when he clipped the outside of the post with a long-range effort 10 minutes after the restart.

It was left to Ademilson to add Wuhan's third 16 minutes into the second half when he side-footed home Davidson's pass on the run, with He Chao netting two minutes later and Davidson claiming the fifth from five yards in the 66th minute.

Frank Acheampong pulled one back for Shenzhen from the penalty spot with a quarter of an hour remaining before Jiang Zhipeng was sent off in the 78th minute to cap a miserable evening for Lee Jang-soo's visitors.

The win means Wuhan, playing in the top flight for the first time, maintained their four point gap over defending champions Shandong Taishan, who picked up a 2-1 win over Wuhan Yangtze on Saturday.

Henan Longmen remain in third, 13 points behind the leaders, following their 2-1 win over eight-time champions Guangzhou FC with Shanghai Shenhua four points behind in fourth after their 2-1 win over Beijing Guoan.

Meizhou Hakka thumped Dalian Pro 4-2 to