Guangzhou Evergrande vs Daegu 22/05/19

22 May 2019

Guangzhou Evergrande’s pursuit of the AFC Champions League knockout-stage promotion comes down to the last group-phase fixture as they welcome Daegu to the Tianhe Stadium.

Sitting third in Group F, the hosts hope to overcome a two-point deficit to the Korean visitors and secure their place in the knockout stage. Far more comfortable at home, the Chinese giants have collected six of their seven group-stage points at this venue, scoring six goals while conceding zero across those two triumphs. Therefore, South China Tigers look to settle the score with Daegu following a 3-1 loss in South Korea even though they’ve failed to pick up a win in their last two competitive home outings (D1, L1). An encouraging fact for Fabio Cannavaro is that his men have kept six clean sheets in their previous nine home games across all competitions, allowing over 1.5 match goals only once in the remaining three.

Meanwhile, the visitors will book tickets for the knockout stage should they manage to avoid defeat here, which could be a daunting prospect judging on their last two competitive away games (L2). Also, André’s players have endured partial success in their two CL away fixtures this term (W1, L1), with both of those games featuring over 1.5 first-half goals. Notably, though, all three of Daegu’s CL triumphs have seen them score over 2.5 match goals, with two of them ending with the same 3-1 scoreline. However, for Daegu, goals have been in short supply when away from home lately, as they’ve struggled to find the net in three of their last six road trips.