Football
Michael Church, Asia correspondent 6y

Manuel Pellegrini's Hebei CFFC close on AFC Champions League

Manuel Pellegrini's Hebei CFFC are just one win away from qualifying for the AFC Champions League for the first time in the club's history after South American duo Aloisio and Ezequiel Lavezzi scored the goals that saw off champions Guangzhou Evergrande 3-0 on Sunday.

Aloisio of Brazil scored twice and Argentine star Lavezzi was also on target as Hebei held on to third place in the standings ahead of Tianjin Quanjian with just one round of matches remaining in the Chinese Super League season.

Victory next week over Shandong Luneng will take the club into the qualifying rounds of the continental club championship ahead of Fabio Cannavaro's team at the end of what is only Hebei's second season in the top flight of Chinese football.

"Now the decision is in our hands," former Manchester City manager Pellegrini said. "If we can win against Shandong Luneng we can qualify for the Asian Champions League without worrying about the results in the other matches.

"It will mean so much to our long-term development if we can finally secure it. This is the team's second season in the league and, if we want to achieve a bigger target in the future, we have to keep growing.

"For our club, the AFC Champions League will not be easy. From the beginning of the season we have been fighting to be there and to match up to those big clubs. We need to shorten the gap between us and the top teams and I'm quite sure that we are on the right track."

The game held little significance for Guangzhou, who clinched their record seventh straight title last weekend, but the loss was the club's biggest of the league campaign, with Luiz Felipe Scolari serving the second of a three-game touchline ban.

"We've done a great job in this game, especially on the defensive side," Pellegrini said.

"Evergrande are very good in attack but we overcame them with a strong defence. We didn't give them many chances to play in front of our penalty area. We scored three times and that's a big number."

Tianjin Quanjian, meanwhile, kept the pressure on Hebei with a 4-1 thrashing of already relegated Liaoning Whowin as the battle for the places in next year's AFC Champions League comes down to a two-horse race.

Guangzhou R&F cannot now finish in the top three despite their 3-2 win over Tianjin Teda due to their inferior head-to-head record against Hebei while Shandong Luneng's 3-0 loss to Guizhou Zhicheng ended their hopes.

Elsewhere, Shanghai Shenhua notched up a 5-1 win over Yanbian Funde with Carlos Tevez on the scoresheet while Shanghai SIPG cruised to a 4-2 win over Henan Jianye.

Fabio Capello's Jiangsu Suning picked up a 1-0 win over Beijing Guoan and Changchun Yatai handed Chongqing Lifan a 3-1 defeat.

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