Modeste again had a great chance to open the scoring on 72 minutes after being played through by Wang Yongpo, but the Frenchman blasted his shot high and wide. A defensive blunder gifted Pato a one-on-one with Zeng with 10 minutes remaining, but the Guangzhou custodian stood tall to deny the Brazilian and backed it up with another fine save to deny Modeste’s rebounded effort to ensure his side ended the match with a clean sheet. The two teams will meet again next week in the second leg at the Tianhe Stadium in Guangzhou.

The Brazilian put the home side ahead in just the sixth minute when he got on the end of Yoo Jun-su’s cross to head the ball back across goal and out of the reach of Song Beom-keun.

One of Jeonbuk’s own Brazilians, Adriano, had a chance to draw the visitors level after 17 minutes but his header lacked any power and was easily saved by Sivarak Tedsungnoen.

In the first minute of the second half Kim Shin-wook had a header saved off the line by Sivarak as Choi Kang-hee’s side turned up the heat in search of an equaliser, and it would come just five minutes later.

Kim was involved in the lead up play, chesting a long-ball down on the edge of his area for Ricardo Lopes to run onto, with the Brazilian driving into the area and shooting past a helpless Sivarak.

Buriram didn’t let the setback slow them down as they continued to push forward and but for an outstanding tackle from Lee Yong, Diogo would’ve been through one-on-one with Song just before the hour mark.

But you can’t keep a good man down and right on the hour mark Diogo produced a piece of magic from a free kick to restore the home side’s lead.

The Thunder Castle erupted just less than ten minutes later when a lung-bursting run from Edgar Silva produced one of the best goals of the campaign as he weaved his way past the Jeonbuk defence to put his side 3-1 up.

Diogo almost had a brace of his own, but his volleyed effort was well saved by Song on 80 minutes as Bozidar Bandovic’s men continued to push forward in search of more goals, but instead it was Jeonbuk who scored again as Son Jun-ho’s 91st minute effort ensured they return home for the second leg with two away goals to their name.

The tie is now finely balanced as the two teams prepare to fly to Jeonju for next week’s second leg.