SYDNEY: Guangzhou Evergrande led a trio of teams into the AFC Champions League last 16 on Tuesday but Western Sydney Wanderers’ title defense was left hanging by a thread.

Fabio Cannavaro’s Guangzhou needed only a 0-0 draw against FC Seoul to qualify top of Group H and reach the knock-outs alongside Suwon Samsung and Al Hilal.

But the Wanderers suffered a harsh blow when Mu Kanazaki scored in injury-time to secure a 2-1, come-from-behind win which dragged Kashima Antlers off the foot of the table.

With one group game left, against Guangzhou, the Australian side are now bottom of Group H, a point adrift of FC Seoul and Kashima and with their grip on the title slipping.

The Wanderers won the competition in a fairytale debut last year and they seemed to have kept their unconvincing trophy defense alive with Nikita Rukavystya’s strike on 24 minutes.

But Kashima pressed relentlessly for the equalizer and they got their breakthrough on 66 minutes, when Shoma Doi curled home a priceless goal which kept them in the competition.

Kashima kept on coming and they were rewarded with a deserved win when Kanazaki converted Shuto Yamamoto’s penetrating cross in the first minute of injury time.

A home win against FC Seoul in a fortnight’s time would send Kashima through, while Western Sydney need to win at Guangzhou and hope Kashima and Seoul draw.

In Group G, Brazilian substitute Kaio grabbed a late winner as Suwon eliminated Urawa Red Diamonds 2-1 and advanced to the knock-out rounds.

Zlatan Ljubijankic put Urawa ahead after 69 minutes, but Ko Cha-Won headed the two-time Asian Club Championship winners level before Kaio’s clincher two minutes from time.

Beijing Guoan could have joined Suwon in the knockout rounds but they lost 1-0 at home to Australian champions Brisbane Roar, through Andrija Kaluderovic’s goal in the first half.

Despite the defeat, the Chinese side remain three points ahead of Brisbane and will go through if they avoid defeat on their visit to Suwon for their final game.

Meanwhile, former Asian champions Al Hilal advanced from Group C after the Saudi club beat Lokomotiv 2-1 thanks to second-half goals by Nawaf Al Abid and Abdullah Zori.

Shamrani ban reduced

Saudi Arabia’s Nasser Al Shamrani has had his ban for spitting at and head-butting Western Sydney Wanderers defender Matthew Spiranovic after the Asian Champions League final reduced on appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The prolific Al-Hilal striker was handed an eight-match ban by the Asian Football Confederation for the incident, which happened in November after his club were beaten by the Australian side 1-0 over the two legs of the final.

CAS stayed the punishment in March and late on Monday reduced the ban to two matches for the head-butt and four matches for the spitting offense with a further two-match ban suspended for a probationary period of two years.

The original ban, six for the spitting and two for the head-butt, was the minimum Al Shamrani could have received for the offenses.

The AFC had attempted to delay the announcement of their initial verdict to avoid embarrassment when they presented Al Shamrani with their Player of the Year award, only for the news to leak out.

An appeal to the AFC failed but the regional body allowed him to compete in the Asian Cup with Saudi Arabia in January after restricting the ban to just ACL League matches.

Al Shamrani served two matches of the ban before CAS granted the stay and he returned to score his 26th goal in the ACL as Al Hilal beat Iran’s Foolad 2-0 earlier this month.

The statement on the CAS website said the full verdict, with the grounds for the reduction in the punishment, would be issued at a later date.