Moon's strike keeps Jeonbuk on top in Asian Champions League

HONG KONG : Second half substitute Moon Seon-min struck three minutes into injury time to earn Jeonbuk Motors a 1-0 win over Vietnam's Hoang Anh Gia Lai in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday as the South Korea side remained unbeaten in the Asian Champions League.

Moon's rising strike from the edge of the penalty area killed off a determined HAGL side and moved Jeonbuk onto seven points from their first three games in Group H.

Kim Sang-sik's side are one point clear of second placed Yokohama F Marinos as the group phase reaches the halfway point, with only the winners of each of the five groups in east Asia guaranteed to advance to the knockout rounds.

They will be joined in the next phase of the competition, which will be played in August, by the three runners-up with the best records.

Moon's goal was just reward for a Jeonbuk side that dominated without finding a way past HAGL goalkeeper Huynh Tuan Linh until the dying seconds, when the South Korea international smashed his right-foot shot home.

Yokohama maintained the one point gap to the group leaders despite labouring to a 1-0 win over Sydney FC courtesy of an 80th minute strike from Ryotaro Tsunoda.

Tsunoda made amends for missing an open goal 10 minutes earlier when he thumped a low drive through a crowd of players and past Andrew Redmayne after the Sydney defence had failed to clear a corner.

The win was the Japanese side's second in three games having started the competition with a 2-1 victory over HAGL on the opening match day before losing to Jeonbuk.

Meanwhile, Vissel Kobe consolidated their position at the top of Group J in Buriram with a 6-0 thrashing of Thailand's Chiangrai United.

Yuya Osako opened the scoring from close range in the sixth minute while Koya Yuruki claimed