KAWASAKI — Kawasaki Frontale virtually guaranteed themselves a place in the Asian Champions League knockout phase with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Central Coast Mariners on Tuesday night.
Frontale had beaten the Australians 5-0 in the away fixture two weeks ago, and looked to be easing toward victory again when Juninho took advantage of a mistake by Mariners goalkeeper Daniel Vukovic to score the opener seconds after halftime.
But Matthew Simon complicated matters when he leveled for the A-League side in the 59th minute, and it took a header from substitute Renatinho 10 minutes from time to snatch the three points in steady driving rain at Todoroki Stadium.