A well-taken strike from Kazuhiko Chiba rescued a point for Sanfrecce Hiroshima on Tuesday as the two-time defending J. League champions drew 1-1 at home to Beijing Guoan in their Asian Champions League opener in Group F.
Ha Dae-sung gave the visitors the lead midway through the second half, but Chiba volleyed in the equalizer 12 minutes from time after Hiroshima had been thwarted by a series of saves by Beijing goalkeeper Yang Zhi.
"We had a lot of good spells and obviously would have liked all three points but we got the absolute minimum done and we can build on that," said Chiba.
"We are away in our next match (against Australia's Central Coast Mariners on March 11) and we have to get ourselves well prepared. We might not be able to play pretty soccer but we have to pick up points."
Also on Tuesday, Diego Forlan came on in the second half to make his debut for Cerezo Osaka but the Uruguay striker was unable to get on the scoresheet in a 1-1 draw away to South Korea's Pohang Steelers in Group E.
An exquisite strike from Yoichiro Kakitani gave Cerezo the lead but Bae Chun-suk capitalized on sloppy defending to earn Pohang a share of the spoils on 61 minutes.