Former AFC Champions League winners Urawa Red Diamonds (1-1-1, 4 points) takes on the tournament's struggling defending champions, Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao FC (0-1-2, 2 points), on April 5th, Tuesday at the Saitama Stadium 2002 in Saitama, Japan as they try to advance in the round-of-16 stage.

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The Red Diamonds pulled off a 2-2 draw with the Southern China Tigers during their first group stage meeting on March 16th at the Tianhe Stadium in Guangzhou to push the reigning Asian champions to the brink of elimination in the tournament they won two times in the last three years, as reported by Xinhuanet.

Guangzhou's World Cup-winning head coach Luiz Felipe Scolari seemed undeterred about his team's situation, though, as he acknowledged that their opponents were strong and they still need to improve.

"It was a wonderful match, we created many opportunities, but sorry we couldn't score one more goal," Scolari told reporters after the match. "We were under pressure, the opponents were very strong and the result was a fair one, we are still on our road to improve."

Brazilian midfielder Ricardo Goulart scored twice, at the sixth and 14th minutes, to give Guangzhou the early lead, but the Red Diamonds were able to equalize with goals at the 30th and 89th minutes courtesy of forwards Yuki Muto and Shinzo Koroki, via Fox Sports.

Group H is currently led by A-League team Sydney FC with 6 points while K League Classic's Pohang Steelers settles for the runner-up spot even though they are tied on points with Urawa because of a superior goal differential statistic.

The top two teams of each of the eight groups will advance in the round-of-16 stage of the said competitions.

The predicted result is a tough 2-1 redemption for Guangzhou Evergrande as they keep their title defense alive.

Urawa Red Diamonds starting lineup (3-4-2-1 formation): Nishikawa; Makino, Endo, Moriwaki; Ugajin, Abe, Aoki, Umesaki; Muto, Kashiwagi; Ljubijankic

Guangzhou Evergrande starting lineup (4-2-3-1 formation): Zeng; Li, Feng, Mei, Wang; Zheng Z., Paulinho; Zheng L., Goulart, Huang; Martinez 

TagsChina Football, China football 2016, AFC Champions League, AFC Champions League 2016, 2016 AFC Champions League, Urawa Red Diamonds, Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao FC