Taejon Citizen leave Bagan
in the cold

South Korean side Taejon Citizen lit up a cold and damp Daejeon World Cup stadium to thump Mohun Bagan of India 6-0 in their AFC Champions League final qualifying round first leg match on Wednesday.

The frigid conditions proved a big advantage for the home side who dealt a serious blow to Mohun Bagan's ambitions in the new three million dollar competition.

The second East zone match saw Shanghai Shenhua of China easily overcome Geylang United of Singapore 3-0.

In West zone action, Uzbekistan's Pakhtakor edged out the UAE's Al Ahli 3-2, while Iranian league giants Esteghlal scored a narrow 1-0 win over Neftchi in Tehran.

Tejon Citizen had their game virtually wound up in the first-half with four goals by the interval.

Defender Kim Young-kwen put Taejon into the lead in the seventh minute, heading in a cross from the left with Lee Kwang-woo doubling up with an 18th minute penalty as the Indians looked extremely uncomfortable playing in temperatures of just three degrees Celsius.

Taejon went 3-0 up when Gong Oh-kyun hammered home a shot from just inside the box in the 24th minute and then scored his second goal of the night a minute before half-time with a similar effort from the left side of the box.

Taejon midfielder Kim Eun-jong was in scintillating form and he sent in a superb cross from the right flank eight minutes after the restart which was headed home by Kim Kwang-sun.

Kim Eun-jong then wrapped up the scoring for the home side in the 73rd minute.

Despite the scoreline, Taejon coach Lee Tae-ho praised the visitors.

"This Indian team is much stronger than the Macau team (Monte Carlo) that we played in the last round. The weather was very cold and I think that prevented Mohun (Bagan) from showing their best form," said Lee.

Bagan coach Subrata Bhattacharjee concurred, saying that his team had a torrid time trying to acclimatise to the conditions.

"The weather was very cold and the team were not comfortable at all. We were not able to adjust to the conditions and the ground gave us problems as well," lamented Bhattacharjee.

In the East zone's other game Shanghai Shenhua had Du Wei, Zheng Kewei and Orlando Bernardes Da Silva to thank for their 3-0 win over Geylang United at the Hongkou stadium - all the goals coming in the second half.