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AsianFootball - Tehran: Korean Republic side Suwon Samsung Bluewings were crowned as the best in Asia for the second consecutive year on Friday as they overcame K-League rivals Anyang LG Cheetahs in a penalty shootout to win the final of the 21st Asian Club Championship.

After failing to find a way past a 10-man Anyang side in 120 minutes of scoreless football, Suwon finally prevailed by a 4-2 margin in the shootout. Brazilian striker Sandro Cardoso slotted in the winning penalty after Suwon goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae had earlier saved a weak effort by Kim Sung-il.

With the heavy pitch at the Azadi Stadium making close control and passing extremely difficult, the game ended up being a close battle between two closely-matched sides who also drew 0-0 in February during an Asian Club Championship quarter-final round-robin match.

Anyang enjoyed the balance of play for much of the opening half-hour but the best early opportunity fell to Sandro, whose attempted chip was punched away by Anyang goalkeeper Valeri Sarytchev.

Suwon came close to scoring again after 31 minutes as Lee Son-woo cut the ball back from the byline to Bosnian striker Alen Avdic, who deflected the ball with his right knee onto the Anyang goalpost.

Shortly after, Anyang were reduced to 10 men when Brazilian playmaker Andre Santos hacked down Lee Byoung-keun from behind with a nasty tackle that earned him the red card.

Suwon went close early in the second half as Sandro Cardoso's piledriver from 25 yards out was turned aside by Sarytchev at full stretch. Lee Ki-hyung then saw his volley that flash narrowly wide of the Anyang left upright after 65 minutes.

The Anyang defence was superbly marshalled by Park Yo-seb and held out well against a Suwon side that never managed to successfully exploit its man advantage. Anyang defender Kim Dong-jin even had a chance to snatch the win for Anyang with eight minutes remaining when he got behind the Suwon defence but fired straight at Lee Woon-jae.

Avdic nearly ended the contest three minutes into extra time when his diving header forced another good save out of Man-of-the-Match Sarytchev. At the other end, Ricardo's speculative effort from 35 yards out caught Lee off his line and nearly snuck in at the far post.

Having pulled off a number of good saves to preserve the goalless draw, Sarytchev got some help with 10 minutes left in extra time. Kim Doo-hyun's lob from the byline looped over the Russian goalkeeper's head but was cleared off the Anyang goal line by Lee Young-pyo.

The game went to penalties and after Park Yo-seb and Suwon's Ko Chang-hyun had put their kicks well over the crossbar, Kim Sung-il stepped up to take his side's third kick. Unfortunately for the Anyang defender, he put his kick too close to Lee Woon-jae and the Suwon goalkeeper pulled off an easy save.

Suwon's Cho Byung-kuk and Anyang's Lee Young-pyo both scored to leave Sandro Cardoso with the responsibility of clinching the match for Suwon. The Brazilian, who also scored the winning goal in Suwon's 2001 Asian Club Championship victory over Jubilo Iwata, duly obliged with a low shot into the left hand corner of Sarytchev's net.

In the day's earlier match, Iranian side Esteghlal secured third place in the tournament with a 5-2 trouncing of Uzbekistan's Nasaf Karsi.

A brace by Mohammad Navazi and an own goal by Bottir Karaev gave Esteghlal a 3-1 lead at the break, before Faraz Fatemi and Mahdi Pashazadeh struck in the second half to wrap up a consolation victory for the hosts.

Oybek Usmankhodjaev and Zafar Kholmurodov got goals for the Uzbek side.

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