Soccer-Tianjin take Asian Champions League spot after Hebei lose
HONG KONG, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Tianjin Quanjian pipped Manuel Pellegrini's Hebei CFFC to third place in the Chinese Super League on Saturday to claim the final berth in next season's Asian Champions League.
Tianjin, coached by Fabio Cannavaro, beat champions Guangzhou Evergrande 2-1 at Tianhe Stadium while Hebei lost a nine-goal thriller against Shandong Luneng despite Ezequiel Lavezzi scoring a hat-trick.
Tianjin moved ahead of Pellegrini's team by two points and will join Guangzhou and Shanghai SIPG in next year's Asian Champions League, although Hebei could still qualify if SIPG defeat Shanghai Shenhua in the final of the Chinese FA Cup later this month.
"Today I don't want to think about anything but celebrating the victory," said Cannavaro, who has been linked this week with a return to Evergrande as a replacement for Luiz Felipe Scolari.
"Every coach wants to manage a team in the Asian Champions League. The chairman said my mission was to bring the team into the Asian Champions League, and I managed it."
Hebei needed to win against Felix Magath's much-improved side but were two goals down inside the first 38 minutes after Hao Junmin and Papis Cisse put the home side in front.
Two goals in the first 11 minutes of the second half from Lavezzi -- the second from the penalty spot -- revived Hebei's chances only for Diego Tardelli to put Shandong back in front just before the hour.
Dong Xuesheng pulled Hebei level again but a further two goals from Tardelli, either side of Lavezzi's third of the game, gave Shandong a 5-4 win and all three points, allowing Tianjin the opportunity to move into the Asian Champions League places.
Cannavaro's side took full advantage against a Guangzhou side who have lost both games since claiming a seventh straight league title, with Anthony Modesto putting Tianjin in front before Sun Ke doubled his team's advantage and ensured Feng Xiaoting's goal was nothing more than a consolation.
"My congratulations to Shandong, they fought for the result while we had no such highlights," said Pellegrini.
"After the loss our only hope of qualifying for the Asian Champions League was if Evergrande would beat Tianjin.
"Evergrande used to have a good home record, however they lost to Tianjin and they're now ranked higher than us."
Eran Zahavi scored Guangzhou R&F's first goal in their 2-0 win over Chongqing Lifan to finish the season as the league's leading scorer with 27 goals.
Beijing Guoan slipped to a 2-1 defeat at home to Changchun Yatai while relegated Yanbian Funde picked up a rare win with a 3-0 victory over Guizhou Zhicheng and Tianjin Teda beat Henan Jianye 1-0.
Shenhua secured a second win in a row as they continued preparations for the Chinese FA Cup final with a 4-1 thrashing of Liaoning Whowin and SIPG, their opponents in the two-legged final, lost 3-2 to Fabio Capello's Jiangsu Suning. (Editing by Clare Fallon)
