PHILIPPINE club United City FC scored a 1-all draw against China’s Beijing Guoan FC over the weekend in their opening campaign in the 2021 AFC Champions League at the Bunyodkor Football Stadium in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Stephan Shröck scored United City’s first goal in the AFC with a rocket shot on the top left corner of Beijing’s goal in the 28th minute putting the Filipino club ahead 1-0.
Bienvenido Marañón and Hikaru Minegishi had their own chances inside the box to extend the United City lead but Beijing's defense stood firm to deny their attempts.
The Filipino club continued their dominance in the game -- preventing the young Beijing squad to make a run. It was until in the middle of the second half when the Chinese club made a counter attack which forced the United City to commit a foul just outside the box. Liang Shaowen took the free kick in the 73rd minute which went through the top-right of the United City’s goal out of reach of keeper Anthony Pinthus.
With the scoreboard tied at 1-1, United City tried to make several offensive attacks from the left flank with Shröck and Minegishi as well as from the center with Marañon and substitute Mark Hartmann -- whose shot just hit the crossbar. However, the efforts to take the 3 points failed even with the extra 4-minute in the match.
United City dominated the match with 75 percent in possession having 19 shots -- 4 on target, and 10 corners. They also displayed a 90-percent passing accuracy with 725 passes in the match. Meanwhile, Beijing only has 3 shots with 1 on target and a corner.
Eric Gottschalk, United City chief executive officer and co-founder, said the draw was a good start for them at the AFC Champions League level.
"To be honest, we are a bit disappointed with the result based on the way we dominated the opponent,” he said.
“Nevertheless we are happy about the good showing especially considering the circumstances under which we had to prepare and arrive in Uzbekistan. We are the only team in our group that hasn’t played any competitive matches in over 8 months,” Gottschalk said. “Big test on Tuesday and Friday and then we know a bit more of how our campaign will go.”
United City will next face Daegu FC of Korea on Tuesday and Kawasaki Frontale of Japan on Friday.