Guoan had plenty of chances in front of its home crowd at Beijing Workers' Stadium, but Molina fired in a 20-meter free kick after defender Zhang Yonghai was sent off for a handball.

Seongnam were also reduced to 10 men after Australian defender Sasa Ogenovski was shown a second yellow card in stoppage time.

“Beijing's performance today was excellent. Fortunately, we emerged triumphant in the end,” Seongnam coach Shin Tae-young said.

“I predict Beijing and Kawasaki have better chances of securing another ticket to the knockout stage.” The top two teams from the eight groups advance to the round of 16 knockout stage.

Seongnam leads Group E with 12 points after the fourth round of play, six ahead of nearest rival Beijing.

Japan's Kawasaki Frontale and Melbourne Victory both have three points after the Australian club beat Kawasaki 1-0 with a second-half penalty from former Millwall captain Kevin Muscat to keep its slim hopes of advancing alive.

The Melbourne win reversed a 4-0 loss to Kawasaki in Japan last week.

“I thought it was great effort by the boys. I mean we were beaten 4-0 over in Japan we turned that around to a 1-0 win and we did it well,” Melbourne coach Ernie Merrick said.

Korea's Suwon Bluewings retained its Group G lead with a 2-0 win over Henan Jianye of China.

Suwon now has 10 points, two ahead of Gamba Osaka of Japan, which downed Singapore Armed Forces 3-0. Henan on two points and Armed Forces with one are out6 of contention.

In western Asia, Esteghlal of Iran drew 1-1 with Qatar's Al Gharafa to retain the Group A lead. Esteghlal has eight points, one ahead of Al Gharafa . Saudi Arabia's Al Ahli has six points after a 3-2 win over the United Arab Emirates' Al Jazira, which is out of contention with one point.

In Group C, Al-Shabab of Saudi Arabia beat Al Ain of the UAE 3-2 and Iran's Sepahan downed Uzbek side Pakhtakor 2-0.

Al Shabab leads the group with seven points, ahead of Pakhtakor with six, Sepahan with five and Al Ain with four.