SANFRECCE Hiroshima’s Asian Champions League (ACL) title aspirations took an early hit as the J. League champions went down 2-1 at home to China’s Shandong Luneng in their opening Group F match Tuesday.

    Hiroshima took the lead midway through the second half at Edion Stadium, thanks to a blistering effort from Kohei Shimizu, but Shandong leveled moments later through Yang Xu. Diego Tardelli then snatched victory for the visitors 12 minutes from time.

    It was a bad night all around for Japanese clubs as playoff qualifier FC Tokyo went down 2-1 away to South Korea’s Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in Group E.

    Looking to build Saturday’s 3-1 Fuji Xerox Super Cup win over Gamba Osaka, during which star striker Hisato Sato scored but picked up a hamstring injury and missed the match against Shandong as a result, Hiroshima enjoyed plenty of possession and went close to breaking the deadlock on the stroke of halftime.

    After seeing a dipping shot hit the side netting, new loan signing Peter Utaka set up Takuma Asano with a clever pass, but the Japan Under-23 international’s lofted shot was hacked behind by defender Dai Lin.

    Hiroshima had the ball in the net from the resulting corner, but the goal was disallowed for a foul on goalkeeper Wang Dalei by Yusuke Minagawa.

    Utaka continued to look lively in his first start and picked out Yoshifumi Kashiwa, whose deflected shot fizzed over the cross bar on the hour mark.

    But Hiroshima made the breakthrough three minutes later. Minagawa got his head on Tsukasa Shiotani’s cross from the right and the loose ball fell to Shimizu, who took the ball on his chest and made no mistake with a rasping drive into the right-hand corner of the net.

    Hiroshima’s joy did not last long, though, as Yang got in between Utaka and Shiotani to head in a corner and put Shandong level on 67 minutes.

    Shandong then went in front as substitute Wu Xinghan mugged Hiroki Mizumoto after a weaving run and cut the ball back to provide Tardelli with a simple finish. (SD-Agencies)