Loss in Melbourne piles pressure on Guangzhou

Guangzhou Evergrande's grasp on their AFC Champions League crown loosened on Tuesday night as a second defeat in a row left Marcello Lippi's and his team's hopes of reaching the knockout phase of this year's competition in the balance.

Goals at either end of the game by Mark Milligan and James Troisi gave Melbourne Victory a deserved 2-0 win over last year's continental champions and crucially cancelled out the head-to-head advantage Guangzhou held over the Australian side after their first meeting at Tianhe Stadium.

Guangzhou were in that match forced to fight back from two goals down at half-time to win 4-2 in front of their home fans, but there was no way back for Lippi's side at Docklands Stadium last night as Evergrande put in a second successive disjointed showing.

Having lost to South Korea's Jeonbuk Motors in their previous outing, Guangzhou needed to secure something from this meeting, but the nature of Milligan's opener after just 80 seconds - when he capitalised on poor concentration in both midfield and defence - was indicative of what has been a disappointing campaign so far.

"I'm very disappointed we couldn't score in the second half, but I'm really disappointed that after less than two minutes we gave Melbourne Victory the opportunity to score the first goal," said Lippi. "This big mistake had a major influence on the game.

"It was good for Melbourne to score this goal after two minutes but we also had good chances and it's a shame we couldn't score.

Melbourne goalkeeper Nathan Coe frustrated Guangzhou's Brazilian duo of Muriqui and Elkeson throughout at Docklands Stadium and, a minute into injury time at the end of the game, Troisi double the scoring from close range to revive Victory's hopes of securing a place in the round of 16.