ACL Group G report: Kashima 2-0 Shanghai: Nozawa, Osako sink Shanghai

Takuya Nozawa opened the scoring as Kashima Antlers downed Shanghai Shenhua 2-0. (J.League Photos)

KASHIMA – Goals from Takuya Nozawa and Yuya Osako helped Kashima Antlers bounce back from last week's mauling at Suwon Bluewings with a 2-0 victory over 10-man Shanghai Shenhua at Kashima Soccer Stadium.

Nozawa gave Kashima the lead in the Group G encounter just before half-time with a clinical finish and Shanghai skipper Du Wei saw red midway through the second period before 18-year-old Osako wrapped up the points.

Osako had the first sight of goal after 12 minutes when his bending run was found by Mitsuo Ogasawara's delightful through ball.

The forward's first touch took him away from both defender Yanko Valkanov and the goal before firing into the side netting from a tight angle.

Du then wasted a glorious opportunity to give Shanghai the lead in the 28th minute.

Cheng Liang's deep cross from the left was inadvertently flicked on by a Kashima defender but the skipper could only direct a free header straight at Hitoshi Sogahata from seven yards, although the Kashima keeper did display excellent reflexes to push the ball away.

And Du's miss was further exacerbated when the home side took the lead one minute before the interval.

Ogasawara played a ball into Osako, who had his back to goal, and he turned neatly before slipping in the onrushing Nozawa down the left side of the area and he lifted a finish over keeper Zhang Chen.

Kashima threatened a second immediately after half-time when Zhang shovelled Takeshi Aoki's cross into Marquinhos' path but the keeper recovered to close down the Brazilian.

A slack pass in midfield saw Hernan Barcos played in but the Argentinian's powerful shot was unfortunately straight at Sogahata.

Danilo clipped a ball into the box that Ogasawara could have attacked more aggressively and the ball fell to Osako but he blazed over at the back post before Shanghai were reduced to 10 men after 68 minutes when Du picked up a second caution for dissent to make a difficult task even harder.

After a spell of pressure, Kashima duly doubled their lead in the 79th minute. Marquinhos out-muscled Chen Lei down the left flank before cutting the ball back to Osako, who buried a left-foot shot into the roof of the net.

Marquinhos again got the better of Chen shortly afterwards but Zheng turned his shot behind and substitute Chikashi Masuda glanced a header wide as Kashima pressed for a third.

A lightning counter-attack with two minutes to go saw Atsuto Uchida deliver a beautiful ball across the box but Ryuta Sasaki side-footed woefully wide at the far post before the substitute created an opening for himself but Zhang parried his shot.