Kawasaki Frontale snatch late draw against Guangzhou Evergrande

Zhong Zhi/Getty Images

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Zhong Zhi/Getty Images

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Zhong Zhi/Getty Images

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Zhong Zhi/Getty Images

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Yu Kobayashi's injury-time penalty denied Guangzhou Evergrande a second win in the group stages of the AFC Champions League on Tuesday evening as a dominant display by Luiz Felipe Scolari's team went unrewarded.

Alan Carvalho was on target once again to give Guangzhou the lead, the Brazilian striker claiming his third goal in three games in the continental club championship, but Kobayashi's late spot kick pegged back the two-time champions.

The draw leaves Guangzhou unbeaten in the competition so far this season, following on from an opening victory over Hong Kong's Eastern and a draw with Suwon Bluewings that leaves Evergrande on five points as the group stages reach the halfway point.

Frontale, meanwhile, have yet to win in this year's edition of the competition with the draw the third in three games for Toru Oniki's team, who are in third place in Group G, two points behind both Guangzhou and Suwon.

The result will feel like two dropped points for a Guangzhou side who were on the ascendancy from the early exchanges, with Alan's curling attempt pushed to safety by Jung sung-ryung and Zheng Zhi seeing his shot turned away for a corner as Evergrande took charge.

Frontale offered little until Hiroyuki Abe ran onto Kobayashi's header into space but his low effort was saved as Zeng Cheng dived to his right, and that near-miss sparked the two-time champions into life.

Almost immediately, Guangzhou took the lead when Ricardo Goulart latched onto Zheng Linpeng's forward ball before finding Alan in the penalty area, and the striker steadied himself before slotting into the bottom corner.

Alan's goal threatened to open the floodgates as Guangzhou put the Kawasaki goal under sustained pressure. Yu Hanchao's perfect first touch took him behind the visitors' defence only for Jung Sung-ryung to deny him with a block, while Yu was denied against seconds later when Jung pushed his shot onto the bar after Paulinho outmuscled the Japanese side's defence.

Alan himself should have made it 2-0 on the half-hour mark when a lapse by Jung saw the South Korean goalkeeper play the ball to the Brazilian's feet, but the World Cup veteran did enough to redeem himself, while soon after Goulart powered his header just over the bar.

Guangzhou continued to press for a second after the break, with Goulart's attempt testing Jung while Alan tried in vain to lob the Korean goalkeeper.

Frontale, however, steadily pulled themselves back into the game and Oniki's team almost pulled level with 14 minutes to go when Kobayashi turned sharply to meet Abe's through ball only for his low shot to come back off the woodwork and to relative safety.

The J.League side maintained the pressure and, deep into injury time, their persistence paid off when Yu handled the ball inside the area and Kobayashi calmly slotted his penalty down the middle to pick up a point.